Free Trade is always something good, even for wine drinkers. At least, that's what The Economist says on its Free Exchange economics blog, pointing to a study by the Journal of Wine Economics. "We find that there is an overall decrease in the real price of a shopping cart of all 100 wines from year to year," the study says.

Using constant 1988 dollars, the study demonstrates that the price on the entire basket of the top 100 wines in the United States fell from US$4,313 in 1988 down to US$3,132 in 1993, then to US$2,533 in 1999, then to US$2,421 in 2004. This is a 44% decrease in prices over only 16 years. The quality of the wines included in the top 100 list stayed roughly the same over the studied period.

Globalization is the driving force behind the drop in price, the study concludes. Wine from "Old World" countries like France or Italy is being replaced by "New World" competitors like Australia or even so-called "New-New World" competitors like Chile. "Thanks to globalization, the world of wine is filled with greater variety, the same level of quality and, at least for the wine drinker in the United States, it is also a more affordable one."