It is, as they say, a bit of a moment. Here we are in the grip of this puzzling and profound financial crisis. Yet the Champagne region of northern France, unable to meet surging demand for its bubbly, thinks now is just the time to expand the acreage of land it allows to produce this sparkling index of excess. Counterintuitive, n’est-ce pas?

Well, there is a growing taste for bubbly in the newly affluent emerging markets of China, Russia and India – not to mention a Titanic spirit, as well as appetite for fizz, in the City and other beleaguered financial centres. There is, in fact, quite a good fit with the zeitgeist.