Australians, God bless us, have a history of spending more money on Champagne when things look like they’re getting tight. Last November sales of imported sparkling wine were 757,000 litres, up by 32% on the previous year’s level of 574,000 litres. To put these numbers into some perspective, consider these facts: Our consumption of local sparkling wine actually fell by 2.2% in that very month. Furthermore, there was a 13.4% decline in all bottled domestic wine sales for the month of November 2003 against the year before. Do our wine drinkers know something the Federal Treasurer should be fessing up about?
