The same again, thanks. The happy drinker's response neatly sums up the most significant trends in Ireland's steadily intensifying love affair with wine. We're drinking more of it than ever: nearly nine litres a head in 1998 which, though still feeble compared with the performance of all our Euro-neighbours, is twice as much as we managed when this decade began. And we're rapidly developing a taste for the better stuff. Wine retailers report that the most significant growth has been in the £6.50 - £8.50 price bracket. Hooray for our perspicacity - seeing the sense of paying a pound or two more for oodles of extra pleasure.
This past year, as our tastes have matured, red wine sales have begun to outpace white. The New World is still edging ahead of the Old, extending its hold on our rapidly expanding market. Bad news for France, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Italy - but it would seem that the swing in this direction in 1998 has only been in the order of 3-4 per cent.
Australia's market share, after a kangaroo-like jump from 11.4 per cent to 15.5 per cent between 1995 and 1997, appears to have slipped a little. The USA, Chile and South Africa are continuing their upward climb, however. There's no doubt that new wine recruits are won over by those bright, fruity, New World flavours.
But the marketing men pushing the most popular big brands probably shouldn't let success go to their heads. All the indications are that Irish drinkers tend to move on fairly swiftly from cheap and bland "beginners' wines" to bottles with more character. Instead of reaching for the likes of Pedrotti or Piat d'Or, they seize on firmer, gutsier styles (as evidenced by the success in Ireland of Ochoa's Tempranillo from northern Spain and Candido's Salice Salentino from southern Italy). As this trend gathers force, I predict the Old World will recover lost ground, providing the more individualistic flavours demanded by a market of increasingly adventurous wine drinkers. We're lucky to have such an array of terrific possibilities to choose from - many of them made with passion and commitment by small-to-medium sized producers. Already, in 1998, Italy has picked up momentum. The rest of Europe will surely do the same.
What does 1999 hold in store, in more specific terms? Less look-alike, taste-alike Chardonnay - and less oak in whatever remains. Instead, more Riesling, at last. More wines from Argentina - still a tiny player in the market but catching up fast, offering everyday drinking value. Big spenders, meanwhile, will incline more to Burgundy and the Rhone than Bordeaux which has shot itself rather painfully in the foot with its madly inflated prices. Staying at the lavish end of the spectrum, we shouldn't forget that the moment when special bottles are uncorked to see the twentieth century out in style is only 363 nights away. There's plenty of champagne, the importers maintain, to keep us frothing at the mouth in the nicest possible way for weeks and weeks of fin de siecle celebrations. But why not buy soon, just to be sure? You might even embark on a little champagne research this very evening - the last big splash of the holidays. Happy New Year.