Along with every other food-related angle to the global financial crisis, one of the interesting effects is the dropping price of champagne. If you’re into things sparkling and French, it is a great time to buy. If you’re not, it is a good time to start. Adam Lechmere, web editor of the wine industry magazine Decanter is quoted in the Telegraph.

"Champagne shipments across the world dropped by 20 per cent for the first six months of this year.

"One of the main reasons for this is that people haven't been buying as much of it as normal as they are cutting back due to the recession.

"Corporate sales of champagne for things like events and conferences have also fallen and companies have been buying cheaper alternatives like carva and prosecco.

The market is now ripe for buying up champagne but you could argue, it is always good for buying prosecco. Prosecco has had a history of being treated as a poor cousin to Champagne despite sharing little in common. Both are sparkling, alcoholic, yellowish and come in a similar heavy bottle; and there the similarity ends.

Where champagne is a physical region in France, prosecco is the name of the grape in the wine and the name of the Italian town from whence it came in the Veneto region. Only vineyards in the Champagne appellation can call their booze “champagne” but anyone with the wherewithal to plant prosecco grapes can name their resulting wine “prosecco” whether you happen to be in Australia or Argentina.

Unlike champagne, prosecco has no delusions of grandeur. It is a fresh, apple-y tasting sparkling wine, slightly tart. It works well as an aperitif and with chili - if you take pairing seriously, it can cut through a fatty dish and the apple flavours work well with pork and salami. Prosecco does not have the same yeasty and toasty flavours as champagne because for the bulk of proseccos, secondary fermentation does not occur in the bottle. It tends to occur in giant, stainless steel tanks which keeps the costs considerably lower than the French wine. Proseccos should be imbibed fresh.

In Europe, you can buy it packaged in a can, a product briefly endorsed by Paris Hilton which should be an obvious deterrent as is this promotional video that pictures the Hilton heiress drinking it through a straw. Are there any good wines in a can?

In Australia, it’s grown in the King Valley in the alpine region of northeast Victoria by two wineries – Dal Zotto and Brown Brothers (if anyone else is growing it, I’d be very keen to know) – and they’re both doing excellent work.