I remember when Stones Green Ginger Wine was about 95c Aus a bottle - now it's over 10 times that price...

There was an ABC Radio doco yesterday about Aussie wine costing about $4-5 a bottle to make under contract. One grower was saying that if they sell a bottle for $10-12 they have to make $1-2 each to stay in business - but some Supermarket chains are now doing "loss-leaders" of 2 for the price of 1 - they must have acquired a lot of excess stock from defunt wineries - which is now ripping the heart out of the Aussie wine industry.

The previous comments about all wine being of a higher quality and Eu branding decisions are also true.

If you want a real sweet wine - but it's very hard to get and expensive because of the difficulty in making enough of it - try "Ice Wine" - under various names. The grapes are left to freeze on the vine, then picked, and made into wine. The freezing concentrates the sugar.

Robin