It is old and it is beautiful

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

It is old and it is beautiful and its colours they are fine but it is not what you are thinking of, its the Buckfast Tonic Wine

Buckfast lifts court case threat

The fortified wine is popular with young and underage drinkers - The makers of Buckfast have lifted a threat of legal action against Glasgow City Council.

The tonic wine producer J Chandler & Co presented a petition at the Court of Session, claiming it was discriminated against by the city's licensing board.

It said some retailers had been told not to stock the drink. But the licensing board has now given a legal undertaking that no such policy exists.

Legal action against South Ayrshire Council was ongoing, the firm said.

The drink, which is produced at Buckfast Abbey in Devon, has been highlighted in debates in Scotland on alcohol abuse.

The fortified wine has an alcohol content of 15% and is popular with young and underage drinkers in the west of Scotland. :) :blah01:

J Chandler & Co said minutes of Glasgow's Licensing Board meetings provided proof that officials had negatively singled out the product.

The company said it was due to call a retailer as a witness who would give evidence that the board wanted to make it a condition of his license that he would not sell the product. :D

However, the case was settled before it was heard by judges, with Glasgow Licensing Board providing a written agreement.

It said "an undertaking is hereby given that it does not operate a policy or practice of seeking undertakings or of imposing conditions relative to the stocking or selling of Buckfast Tonic Wine in licensed premises or prospective licensed premises, not is there any intention of doing so in the future".

It also said it agreed that underage drinking and alcohol misuse was an educational, not a product issue.

A spokesman for the board said: "There has never been a policy of discriminating against this or any other product, and neither is there any intention to have such a policy.

"We were happy to confirm this in writing to the pursuers in this case, and on that basis they dropped their legal action."

Jim Wilson, spokesman for J Chandler & Co, said: "We're happy that they've realised we're not the problem."

He claimed previous undertakings made by the licensing board through solicitors had been broken, and added if this legal undertaking was breached the board would be in contempt of court.

When the court action was launched in March, the company said it was targeting South Ayrshire Council, as well as the Glasgow authority.

Mr Wilson confirmed that the action against South Ayrshire was still going ahead.

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