Changyu

[Innkeeper]

You never know. I encountered my first Australian wine in '75. It was in the cellar package store in the American Embassay in Canberra. Nothing (of course they had rock bottom prices there, no taxes, etc) in the place was more than $5 U.S. The Grange was the $5 one. Having never heard of it, I opted for a few in the $3.50 to bring back. Have no idea what they were, but remember being soundly unimpressed. We were not drinking in a vacuum at that time, despite the lack of knowledge on the Grange. We were big time into the rapidly expanding California wine scene at the time.

Look what has happened to the Australian wine industry during the last 31 years! In today's environment of high tech aggie and winemaking techniques, the Chinese will probably be filling up our shelves in ten or fifteen years.