Most winedrinkers claim that Ethiopia has the best locally produced wine between Zimbabwe and North Africa. There are a range of Ethiopian produced wines in the market at reasonable prices. The labels of Kemila and Awash Cristal are the best known white ones, while Axumite and Gouder are the red wine brands. When the Ethiopian embassy in Stockholm some years ago tried to introduce the Ethiopian wines to the Scandinavian market, the rumours say that a slogan proposed was "French Wine is good, but Ethiopian Wine is Gouder", trying to establish Gouder as an export article. Although this initiative never succeeded, Gouder won Gold medals for its quality in Eastern Europe in the late 1970s.
Now a new kind of wine is in the market : Ethiopian Natural Chat Wine. Produced in a limited number it introduces the mild narchotic plant Chat (illegal in Norway) as bottled wine. Whether it will be a success in Ethiopia and what reaction it will meet in Muslim countries where alcohol is banned, and whether Norwegian authorities will ban it as a narchotic; only time will tell.