WINE CULTURE IN N. 8S. WALES. 927 
for the retail of alcoholic liquors, else the wine industry would fare 
badly. The Colonial wine licence costs £5 annually, and carries 
with it no provision for the accommodation of travellers, as is 
the case with an hotel license. Of late years these wine licences 
have increased much in numbers, and include the well-furnished 
city restaurant, the Bodega or better class wine bar, the mere 
wine shop, and the disreputable wine shanty where coarse strong 
wines vie with the sale of illicit spirits. The foreign element from 
Southern Europe patronises extensively wine shops, and consumes 
large quantities of fair wines. The city luncheon bars and 
restaurants have of late given a great impetus to wine consump- 
tion by supplying good wines at moderate prices, chiefly by the 
introduction of the Adelaide “baby” bottle which, to the wine 
merchant, is a nuisance through the trouble entailed for the least 
margin of profit. It has, however, served to popularise wine as 
a beverage, and has led indirectly to an increased family trade. 
Within the past few years many vineyards of repute have opened 
depots in Sydney, but the Metropolitan trade is, after all, not so 
very elastic, although offering the best market. The expense of 
conducting so many distributing agencies competing with each 
other must fall heavily on some pockets, and the burden entailed 
may open the way to some co-operative effort. 
MARKETING THE WINES. 
In every locality in New South Wales where wine is made, 
excellent examples of various distinctive types are produced, so 
that a single cellar contains several varieties, for each of which 
a separate market has to be found. The vineyard proprietors 
try to establish a connection among families far and near, and of 
late many have opened agencies in the metropolis. Hotels and 
wine shops are also supplied, both in town and country. Repre- 
sentatives of the wine-distributing houses, chiefly in Sydney, 
visit the vineyards, sample the wines, and offer prices, reasonable 
but low when compared with the sums charged the private trade. 
The first to inspect the new wines are the largest wine firms, 
who mature their purchases in their own cellars, and the practice 
is extending with these firms to arrange with selected vineyards 
to supervise the vintage, and buy the whole make at an agreed- 
upon price. In common with many of lesser extent the larger 
vineyards buy grapes from the surrounding district at a price per 
ton depending on the density of the must. The smaller wine- 
distributing houses send representatives to bespeak certain casks, 
and take delivery as their trade requires, so that the wines are 
matured in the cellars of the makers. Many of the smaller wine 
houses, and wine doctors (to use an expressive term for those 
who soften down acid wines with carbonate of potash, add 
