Being asked to judge the Cap Classique Challenge by Miguel Chan, dapper group sommelier of Tsogo Sun, confirms the broadening of the sponsorship base for the most important blind tasting of bubbly in SA. Amorim has done a sterling job up to now but the inclusion of a major hotel chain makes perfect sense. For the challenge facing competitions is no longer purely a marketing one: producers are desperate to shift bottles and hotels are an important channel.

Poor old Taittinger, declared official Champagne of next year’s World Cup in Brazil, in the week the favelas went up in flames over charges of corruption and money splurging. Is there a more potent symbol of what the mob were talking about? Forget cake, Champagne has become Marie Antoinette’s cake de nos jours.

Did FIFA miss a trick in 2010? Graham Beck would have made an excellent World Cup Fizz as everyone famous, from Princess Madeleine of Sweden to the Obamas, seems to be drinking the stuff. Speaking of which, can we please have an official MCC for the World Design Capital 2014 project or has a global marketing deal tied-up with Heineken nixed a Design MCC? Heineken were all over the recent Design Week in Milan like a swarm of barflies.

Come to think of it, perhaps Heineken can swap with Taittinger as when it comes to the glorious game, beer trumps bubbly, every time. And Clovis Taittinger (above) dresses so sharply, he’d be a WDC2014 project in his own right.