IMPORTED WINES When I was a newcomer, some 12 years ago, there were not so many israeli wines on the market and the imported ones were rare out of a few specialized shops in which they were quite unaffordable for my means of this time. The israeali conception of the modern economy which combines protectionism under the filters of the customs and heavy administration toward importers, combined with the general use of exclusive importers for each and each products, able to take as much margin as they wish were not obvious factors for proliferation. Nobody is to thank for this in the administration, but the situation evolved a lot. The local production knew a burst both in variety and in quality and the involved professionals usually agree on this that the presence of imported potential "concurrents" on the market play a stimulating role. Their concurrent role is, anyway, limited by the problem of the prices which still exceed by far what they are anywhere else : 2 to 5 times the price in the country of production ! The market is receptive so the number of imported products in the supermarkets largely increased (with often products of modest interest but this is an other problems) and specialized or half-specialized shops florished. This is a little view of what I found there...