The French have a word for it: une catastrophe! Exports of champagne, France's ) most beloved beverage, are dropping with the swiftness of a guillotine blade. Overseas shipments of bubbly fell to 12.2 million bottles during the first three months of 1991, a 28% drop from last year's first quarter. Just across the Channel, where British imbibers usually constitute the largest foreign market, imports dropped by half.
Contributing to the sudden slaking of worldwide thirst: a rush by wine dealers to stockpile champagne before Jan. 1 price increases, coinciding with a drop in demand triggered by the gulf crisis and recessions...
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