There may be an extra reason to celebrate this Christmas. Champagne is likely to plummet in price as a result of the recession.

Wine-trade experts predict that the price of even vintage champagne could fall to as low as £10-£12 a bottle by December, about half its current price, as retailers try to offload stocks.

Sales of champagne, for which Britain is the largest export market, fell by 45 per cent in the first six months of this year.

In Britain they were reduced by 16 per cent as consumers opted for cheaper sparkling wines such as cava and prosecco and companies cut back on entertaining.

Even this week’s Conservative Party Conference may have contributed as an edict banned the traditional copious quaffing of champagne for fear that it would go down badly with voters.

The result may be good news for drinkers but the party will be short-lived. France took measures last month to reduce next year’s grape production to half its current level.

But for now, some wine merchants are already offering substantial discounts on champagne. Majestic has knocked 40 per cent off Taittinger Brut Réserve now at £23.99 a bottle and is offering the same percentage discount for Veuve Clicquot Vintage 2002 at £33.99.

Bollinger Grande Année Rosé 1999 is now a snip at £85, down from £127. Oddbins has also reduced Moet & Chandon Brut Vintage by 22 per cent to £19.99. Falling champagne sales was given as a major reason for Majestic’s 56 per cent profit drop this year.

Robert Joseph, editor of Meininger’s Wine Business International magazine, said the better-known champagne houses would try to resist big discounts for fear of devaluing their brands but that there would still be copious supplies, resulting in lower prices.

He said: “The big brands will try to keep out of it but there are rumours that one or two are already dropping their prices.

“We are not going to see £5 bottles of champagne, but it’s not impossible that we’ll be seeing it at £10 and £15.”

There is about four years’ worth of excess in cellars in champagne houses in France. Much of it is vintage from previous years which has to be matured for 39 months before it can be bottled and sold. Non-vintage is based on grapes from a single year blended with grapes from previous years. It must be 15 months old before it can be sold.

Mr Joseph added: “Non-vintage champagne that we are getting now would be from the 2008 harvest with a bit of 2007 in it.

“There is a lot of champagne lying about in cellars in France. Because of the credit crunch people just aren’t buying it — and that is not just in the UK, that is in France and across the world.

“They are already selling it in France at eight or nine euros a bottle. Non-vintage will clearly be available at sub-£10 at Christmas. Some even feel that vintage champagne will not cost that much more.”

He cautions, however, against buying on price alone: “There is no way of knowing what sort of quality of champagne will be reduced, but the general rule is that if you aren’t paying for it you rarely get it.”

Some supermarkets are also promising bargain bubbly this Christmas. A spokesman for the supermarket chain Morrisons said: “As champagne prices are falling, there will be some great offers for our customers to look out for in the run-up to Christmas.”

But the champagne corks may not be popping for long. Last month the prefect for Champagne region announced a strict quota on the grape harvest which means that up to half will be left to rot on the vine.

The harvest was set at eight tonnes per hectare compared with 14.2 tonnes last year. The result will be a reduction in the number of bottles from 405 million to 230 million, and vintage champagne will once again be reserved for Russian oligarchs, millionaire rappers and Tory grandees.

Jane MacQuitty’s star buy champagnes

2002 Heidsieck Gold Top Brut Majestic Wine Warehouses £39.99. Two for £19.99 each until October 23. The year was a leading champagne vintage and Gold Top has gorgeous, perfumed, waxy, floral flavours

Louis Roederer Brut Premier Majestic Wine £39.99. Two for £29.99 each. Delicious, honeyed, nutty, classic Roederer flavours, with a seductive truffley finish

Tarlant Brut Zero Marks & Spencer £28. This gorgeous, nutty, champagne is an equal blend of all three champagne grapes: chardonnay and pinots noir and meunier. It has no grams per litre of sugar dosage at all

Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve Waitrose £28.99. Dreamy, elegant, hazelnut biscuit blend of one third each of champagne’s three grapes. Blended from the 2000 vintage. It will be £6 less from December 2 until January 5

2002 Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Waitrose £29.99. Made from the chardonnay grape, this blanc de blancs is every connoisseur’s idea of perfection: all smouldering zesty, floral spice

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• 'Radio Rancid' is scourge of Obama
• French gulp as global warming alters wines
• Colton, the barefoot boy bandit, outfoxes sheriffs