Bubbly's Bubble Burst:

we should have seen it coming...
CHAMPAGNE has long been associated with luxury, success and extravagance, thanks to a constrained supply, clever marketing, literary associations and powerful customers, from the Russian imperial court, for whom Roederer’s Cristal was invented, to Sir Winston Churchill, who downed copious amounts of Pol Roger. Over the past two decades champagne shipments went up by an average of 2.2% a year. Recently some markets have grown even faster: America’s consumption rose by 3.5% a year, Britain’s by 4.2% and Japan’s by a foaming 18.1% between 2002 and 2007.

[via economist]