The added costs and lengthy supply delays are something many could do without. Already, growers across the world’s top wine-growing regions were struggling with difficult seasons.

In Marlborough, New Zealand, yields of Sauvignon Blanc grapes were down 30pc during this year’s harvest season, while poor weather conditions in Italy, Spain and France resulted in “extremely low” volumes of wine produced. 

According to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, between 247m and 254m hectoliters of wine were produced globally – a 4pc drop on 2020 and 7pc below the 20-year average. 

According to Pau Roca, the OIV’s director general, growers are “confronting a much greater problem than the pandemic: climate change”. 

But for now, few merchants have time to worry about potential future yields. Across the industry, a major concern is getting those bottles out of the vineyards and onto shelves.

In the UK, the process is simply more arduous. Industry bodies estimate imports are taking five times longer compared to a year ago, at around 15 days due to new bureaucracy and driver shortages. 

Freight forwarders are also charging around 7pc more for driver retention amid fierce competition for workers. 

Maxence Masurier had to place orders far earlier this year due to import struggles. His Made in Little France stores in London stock only French wine after Masurier arrived from his home country seven years ago and couldn’t find any French-specific outlets.

“For champagne, for example, I placed my order in September and usually I’d do that in late October,” he says.

In the past, Masurier stocked around 12,000 bottles in his warehouse and now has nearly 20,000. 

“It’s quite stressful stocking more and earlier, because there’s the thought, am I going to sell everything?”

Already, supermarkets had been struggling to get items around the UK due to driver shortages – prompting Network Rail to lay on additional weekly freight trains in November to deliver 4.5m imported bottles around the country before Christmas Day.