The relative price of wine

I’m sitting at the dinner table (sometimes referred to as the breakfast table depending on the time of day) and am enjoying a glass of Gran Feudo Reserva 2005 (6 euros a bottle here, or $8.50AU [even cheaper if purchased before the earthquakes in Japan]) of which later, lesser vintages are available from a well known Melbourne restaurant (at $40+ mind you) which will remain nameless only because I know there are other things at work here such as the protection of the Australian wine industry; the relative labour costs (though I suspect most Australian grape pickers are illegals too – in fact middleclass European backpackers working without a visa for travel money) and the fact that they (Movida … oops) have such delicious food; and then that cultural curb that has wine lumped in with the alco-pops “prevent youth violence on our streets tax” (which is destroying Melbourne’s music scene, by the way) or else as a luxury item that “foodies” (like me) are willing to spend a fortune on, for that “culinary experience”, whereas here good food and wine seem readily available and viewed upon as nothing more than simply a part of life … and I am thinking what a complex bouquet it has …