pecially prepared for the Australian market,' and you know
what that means. 'Body,' or what captious folk would call 'heaviness,' is
the first condition of good wine to the colonial taste. The lower middle
and lower classes also like it sweet; but of course a man who drinks any
quantity of wine prefers it dry. Besides the champagne drunk for show,
there is--in spite of a 20s. a dozen duty--a large quantity consumed in
the way of nobblers, and at dinner by wealthy men. When a man has made a
lucky speculation, or has just got a large order, he treats his friends
to a bottle of champagne.

I have not seen burgundy half a dozen times since I have been here. The
old colonist finds claret thin and sour; but the younger generation are
beginning to take to it, although there is no wine harder to obtain here
than claret. Nine-tenths of what one buys is adulterated. His knowledge
of _crus_ being naturally limited, the colonist likes to see on his wine
a fine label, one which makes the quality of the wine easily
comprehensible to him. Thus the most successful claret sold here is
divided according to degrees of nastiness into five ranks, and you ask
for So-and-So's No. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, irrespective of vintage or year. 'Bon
ordinaire' is of course unobtainable, but you can get 'Chateau Margaux,'
duty paid, at from 40s. to 50s. a dozen. I was once asked to buy some
wine bearing that label for 2s. 6d. a bottle. The names of one or two
well-known wines having reached your host's ears, he likes to show you by
the name on the label that he is giving them to you; and, unfortunately,
Margaux and Lafitte _labels_ cost no more than any other.

A good deal of sherry and port--even more brandied than for the English
market--is drunk. A wealthy man will never give you colonial wine, not
because it is necessarily worse than the imported stuff on his table, but
because it is colonial. Amongst the middle classes it is beginning to
find favour. A great deal of extravagant praise has been lavished in the
press on these wines since the Bordeaux Exhibition, and I fear that many
who taste them for the first time will be disappointed. They are too
heady, and for the most part wanting in bouquet, whilst their distinctive
character repels the palate, which is accustomed to European growths. But
for all that, I cannot understand how men with only moderate means living
out here can pay large prices for very inferior imported wines, when a
good sound, palatabl