AT a time when per capita beer consumption is at a 62-year low, Australian drinkers seem to be developing a taste for finer things, such as French champagne. The currency boom that has devastated wine exports is a boon for adventurous drinkers, who are increasingly eschewing the domestic stuff for French and Italian wines previously denied to all but the well-heeled. Over the past five years, wine imports have more than doubled from 26.1 million litres a year to 67.6 million litres, and now account for 15 per cent of sales, up from 3 per cent in 1996.