Australia: Land of Good Wine That's Cheaper Than Water

Now might be a good time to support Australia, take some of this absurd supply off the market, and stock up on on some excellent Aussie wine:

A GRAPE glut has provided a happy return for wine lovers in Australia who can now buy their favourite tipple for less than the cost of bottled water.

While a billion litres of unsold wine languishes in storage across the country and wine makers watch their share prices fall, Australians are buying good quality wines at bargain-basement rates, even below the price of mineral water.

Record grape harvests for the past three years have swamped storage cellars with unsold wine. The amount of wine now held in tanks is the equivalent of the entire industry’s annual export output.

In the mid-1990s Australian wine makers embarked on a massive vine planting programme as they attempted to catch up with worldwide demand for wines.

But some believe that overplanting has tipped the balance too far, and above average yields for the past three years have drowned the industry.

Wine makers are moving quality wines at cheap prices by selling them in unlabelled bottles, known as “clean skins�, a term originally applied to unbranded livestock.

At those prices, you're getting a bargain even with transoceanic shipping.

posted by Ace at 01:55 AM

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