You may not have been able to miss the much publicised difficultly the Champagne houses have found themselves in since the recession clicked into gear. Like every market with a cheaper alternative, many people will downgrade.

In the case of sparkling wine, moving from Champagne to less expensive sparkling wine, such as the Spanish Cava or Italian Prosecco, would be akin to buying a Skoda instead of a VW, a laptop instead of a Mac or a box of supermarket own brand Weetabix instead of the real thing (Yes, I firmly believe that nothing beats the real thing when it comes to breakfast cereal.)

In essence, that’s what many consumers have been doing when it comes to drinking wine. They’ve taken a little bit of a hit, and erring on the side of caution, they’re happy to save a few quid and not drink quite as well as they perhaps once did.

Nick Squires (Telegraph.co.uk) reported on the situation in the UK at the end of last year. Over Christmas and in the run up to the New Year, Prosecco sales at Sainsburys were up 60-70%. Not only this, but shipments of Champagne to Britain fell by 32% in the first nine months of the year. According to the Italian Food and Wine Institute, Italy actually exported more Spumante and Prosecco than it consumed.

So it would seem producers of Cava and Prosecco are not having it as bad as their French rivals, and they’ll be the first to argue they are offering better value. And there are some astonishing examples of sparkling wine out there from Spain, Italy and beyond, but most wine drinkers will contest that if you want the best sparkling wine in the world, you go to Champagne.

I think, as with the rest of the industry, you get what you pay for. The proof is in the pudding so to speak.