Why Wine is Cheaper in Europe

There's a great article on OregonLive.com examining the many factors going into why wine is cheaper (and many times, better) when you're vacationing in Europe. To oversimplify, it breaks down into a number of social and environmental factors. Maybe in a few years we'll see comparable prices in the States, but we'll need to encourage most people in the country to increase their consumption in the meantime. Follow the link of the entire list, it's really interesting.

From the introduction:


If you're lucky enough to be able to take advantage of this season's economy-driven discounted airfares to Europe, you'll probably discover a sad truism: The wine seems to taste better and cost less over there. This can be difficult for West Coast denizens to understand. After all, Oregon, Washington and California are all wine states. So we should be awash in the same sort of sea of cheap, delicious drinking options that European wine-producing states are, right?