The Modern Disaster

First there was the Tsunami, then hurricane Katrina, then the Kashmir earthquake, and now, a disaster of upper class proportions that might actually stir the slumbering nuvo-riche: London is running out of Champagne. Yes, that's right. Apparently the overcompensated financial services elite, flush with cash as the Euro crushes the dollar and other currencies into submission, have simply drunk French bubbly into endangerment, at least on one side of the channel.

Oh, sure, you can still wander down to Oddbins and pick up a nice bottle of non-vintage bubbly, but if you're of the mind some Friday night in the near future in London to down a few imperials of Dom Perignon or Veuve Cliquot after making a killing on the currency market, well, as we say in America, you're shit out of luck.

A 40% increase in consumption of the bubbly stuff has many people scratching their heads, and distributors running scared. Sounds like it's a good time to be rich in London, but perhaps better to drink reds these days.

Read the full story.

Posted by: Alder on February 3, 2006 10:20 PM: Filed under: Ramblings and Rants; Like this post? Share it! Digg it! - Add to del.icio.us - Add to Stumbleupon - Add to Reddit

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Comments (5)

Jack wrote:

02.03.06 at 11:29 PM

This is just a whacked story to me. There will never be a shortage of Champagne. My understanding is that the big houses have, well, ummm, will never run out of Champagne. (Apparently, you just have to peer inside a warehouse of theirs to understand this.)

And really, how many days can it take to ship from Champagne to London and get it into stores?

Yes, sales can be up, even way up. But a real, honest, shortage? I'm not buying this hype.

allan wrote:

02.04.06 at 6:20 AM

Shades of the Y2K Champagne shortage...

sam wrote:

02.04.06 at 7:08 AM

good job i don't still live in London - I would drink that bunch of bankers under the table and champagne would already be extinct. (err... of course that would only have been if they'd have paid for the pleasure of me doing so.) Champers is expensive in Britain. Actually, everything is expensive in Britain, come to think of it. I can't even afford to go home anymore.

Dustin Platt wrote:

02.04.06 at 8:28 AM

As a student in London, I realize how much I did slum it, buying my weekly bottle of Le Bocce for 2 quid. It's amazing to me how rich I felt back then... I realize now how spoiled I am with my regular jaunts to Nickel and Nickel, St. Supery, and Honig... and how little I appreciate them, comparatively.
D-

Fiorenzo wrote:

02.05.06 at 10:25 AM

Well, in the article they talk about Dom, Jeroboam format. I can understand that this label is not available in millions of bottles. I don't know this Le Bocce, uh, sounds less popular.