The 2008-2009 Hong Kong budget was released earlier this week. This is generally not something that I would be particularly interested in except this budget directly affects me and every other individual who consumes a little more alcohol than they probably should.

I have previously written about the ridiculous prices of Australian wine in HK and as a result, have experimented with wines from Chile and Spain as well as a few others. I’m not sure why the wine from Australia is particularly expensive compared to the others, it just is. It’s been a kind of forced experiment which I have enjoyed but sometimes I would just like a nice drop from Australia without having to save up for it.

The big announcement of the budget for me was the abolishing of wine and beer tax. This apparently is the reason for some of the exorbitant prices and tends to suggest to me that the tax was on a sliding scale based on quality (not that I am biased or anything). The tax is a blanket 40%.

The very next day saw wine prices drop by 20% at some stores and when the budget comes in, I’ve heard that the prices should drop a further 20%. That means that the Chilean wines will be almost free and the Australian wines will now be more reasonable.

Hong Kong has a desire to become a wine hub and I’m pleased about that. All I need now is for the price of cheese, crackers and other nibbly bits and pieces to also drop in price and aside from the pollution, things would be truly fantastic!

I can be fairly easy to please like that.

* Thanks to Cold Chisel for the title to this post. For some reason, this song always reminds me of university though the only three day growth I had was on my legs. I needed it to keep me warm in winter!