There Must Be A Pony In Here Somewhere

Published: Monday, 6 Jul 2009 | 2:52 PM ET

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A lot of people are trading down on their meals, cooking at home and eating fast food, amid the recession.

Fill me up, Johnny—Just doing my part to help the economy!

But your culinary luck is about to change: Things are now so bad that you can eat and drink like a king at pauper’s prices!

Remember, we told you that the recession has hit the seafood industry so hard, you can now get lobster at lunch-meat prices on Cape Cod.

Well, pour yourself a glass of vino to go with that lobster tail tonight because wine prices have fallen so much, winemakers in Australia are complaining that wine is now cheaper than some bottled water.

WATER!

Dan Murphy, a major wine-retail chain in Australia, is currently selling cleanskins, bottles of wine without a label that are usually sold in a case, for 1.99 Australian dollars, or about $1.60, the Sunday Mail reports.

That’s less than half of what wine cost 10 years ago, the New York Times reported.

“Australia can’t even bottle air and make money selling at that price,” Jeremy Oliver, an Australian winemaker and critic, is quoted as saying in the Times. “The industry is in crisis.”

It’s so bad that some growers aren’t even picking all of their grapes. And Foster’s, the biggest winemaker in Australia, has already sold about 31 vineyards.

This is a rallying cry, people!

Forget the tea parties, raise your goblet high and say it with me: "We will drink until the last drop of recession has been swallowed!"

As Napolean once said, "In victory, you deserve champagne. In defeat, you need it."

I'll drink to that.

* CLINK! *

Pony Treats:

• Recession? Pfffff. There may be fewer jobs, and we have less money to spend, but drinkers couldn't care any less that there's a recession going on, a recent Gallup poll shows. Baltimore Sun beer blogger Rob Kasper has the story.
• A Nice Pairing. "What wine goes with recession?" Alder Yarrow asks in the wine blog Vinography. Click here to find out!

More From CNBC.com:

• Recession Special: Lobster at Lunch-Meat Prices
• Wanted: Fake Employees to Sit and Look Busy
• Happy Hour: The New Day Job
• Get Drunk, Twitter—Make $10,000 a Month
• UK Spy Chief's Wife Posts Life on Facebook
• Recession Got You Down? Let's Have a Cuddle Party.
• Steak, Beer & Rent: The Most and Least Expensive Cities

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