My November trip to Champagne was fascinating, as I visited a number of properties and tasted an extraordinary range of wines. Readers will find a dazzling variety of Champagnes on the market, from outstanding non-vintage releases all the way up to the rarest, most prized trophy wines and everything in between. In general, producers were upbeat about the recently concluded 2008 harvest, although the slowdown in the global economy was a subject of much discussion, especially given the proposed expansion of the region to include a number of new villages. It remains to be seen how much demand, and therefore prices, are affected by the current synchronized global economic slowdown countries around the world are grappling with.