Local wine in Cambodia generally means rice wine; it is popular with the minority people of the northeast. Some is super strong and has been fermented for months, other wine is fresher and tastes more like a demented cocktail. Either way, if you are invited to join a session in a minority village, it's rude to decline. Other local wines include light sugar palm wine and ginger wine.
In Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, foreign wines and spirits are sold in supermarkets at bargain prices, given how far they have to travel. Wines from Europe and Australia start at about US$4, while the famous names of the spirit world cost between US$3 and US$10! Yes, a bottle of Stoly vodka is just US$3.50!
Most of the locally produced spirits are best avoided, although some expats contend that Sra Special, a local whiskey-like concoction, is not bad. At around US$1 a bottle, it's a cheap route to oblivion. There has also been a surge in the popularity of 'muscle wines' (something like Red Bull meets absinthe) with enticing pictures of strongmen on the labels and names like Hercules, Commando Bear Beverage and Brace of Loma. They contain enough unknown substances to contravene the Geneva Chemical Weapons Convention and should only be drunk with care.