Pricking the bubble

Not everyone quite gets sparkling wine. Including me, most of the time. What is it about bubbles that prompt so many people to forget that the wine containing them is often either acidic or insipid? Not to mention, it is usually more expensive at all quality levels than the modest stuff without the bubbles. No generic wine is more overpriced, surely, than champagne-the real stuff from France, I mean.

But let me not be too sour. There are some great champagnes and the occasional sublime one, such as Salon, but even aficionados seem contemptuous of big-volume famous brands such as the ordinary Moët and Veuve Clicquot, which are available at absurd prices, even in your local supermarket here at the foot of Africa.