[originaltext] "But I just paid $1.69 for this bottle of wine last week. How

"But I just paid $1.69 for this bottle of wine last week. How come the price is now $2.25? What’s going on?"
    There are at least three things going on that have caused the price of wine to rise. All have to do with the supply and demand factors of economics.
    The first factor is that people are drinking more wine than ever before. This demand for more wine has increased overall wine sales in America at the rate of 15 percent a year.
    The second factor is that the supply of wine has stayed relatively the same, which means that the same number of bottles is produced each year. Wine producers are trying to open up new land to grow more grapes. But in at least three wine-producing areas of the world France, Germany, and California new vineyards will not be available in the near future. Wines are produced in other countries, such as Italy, Spain and Australia, but none of these countries will be able to fill the demand for good wines.
    The third factor is that costs of wine production are increasing. The men who make wine are asking for more money, and the machinery needed to press the grapes is becoming more expensive.
    When the demand for something is greater than the supply, prices go up. When production costs, meaning the price of labor and machinery, rise, the producer adds this increase to the price of the wine.