Champagne Region Set to Expand

In just 3 days, the land are whose grapes can lawfully be called Champagne will be expanded to include an additional 40 villages. Today, there are 317 Champagne-producing villages. Once the lucky 40 new villages are announced, the government will allow one year to file protests. The difference in land value resulting from inclusion is estimated to be 200 to 1, so the protests will likely be hard fought. But the increase in output resulting from such land will reportedly take an additional 10 years! So, in the meantime, this Pirate is stocking up. Arrrgh.