WE ARE NOT crazy about the name of this competition; a case of lost in translation! Effervescents du Monde reminds some of us about the sort of fizzy fruit salts you might take to sort out a bout of indigestion: ENO! But there are plenty of Champagne and other bubbly houses that participate in this ‘Sparkling World’: the 2017 edition attracted over 600 entries from more than 28 countries, sent to the Lycée Le Castel culinary school of Dijon in Burgundy, France, where 100 or so judges regarded 31 of the wines eligible for gold medals and 151 deserving of silver.

And for the second year on the trot, the non-vintage Brut from Boschendal in Franschhoek was not only the most successful Cap Classique at the event but one of the Top 10 gold medallists, which also included seven sparkling wines from France and one each from Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Argentina and Brazil. At R160 a bottle ex-cellar, South Africa’s flag-bearer on this occasion – made according to the same traditional method for which Champagne is famous – costs less than half the price of a standard Moët, Veuve Clicquot, Taittinger, Mumm, Laurent-Perrier… “But not for very much longer,” we hear some say, thinking of flagship Cap Classique bottles now going for R500, R600, R700 and more.

All of South Africa’s top sparkling wines here.