My recent journey to Champagne brought the usual bout of sympathy from my colleagues who were appalled at my plight in having to visit this region. It was a flying visit to taste our wines and gauge the sentiment of producers.

Over the last decade Champagne has been in growth and prices have risen with demand. Each year the growers and producers have been able to sell all of their stock and times have been good. However you may have noticed that the global economy has taken a turn for the worse and being a luxury product, Champagne sales have been dramatically affected. Recent reports show a 25% decline and this is accelerating. The vignerons in Champagne are putting on a brave face but the ultimate impact must be a reduction in prices to stimulate volume.

One of the features of Champagne is its curious method of production ( this is not the place to go into the method but it was clearly invented by a mad obsessive) which means that producers will hold up to 3 years worth of stock for every 1 year of production. This has the rather beautiful result of walls of wine stored deep underground throughout the Champagne region. Millions and millions of bottles of stock which all needs to be funded. In good times banks are all too willing to lend against highly valuable stock. I wonder what the situation will be over the next six months.