World's Have-Nots Join Champagne Party

The wine of kings -- the king of wines, it's been called. Like no other drink, champagne is the taste of success.

And success is what they've been toasting in the world's big developing economies -- good news for Champagne's traditional producers and possibly bad news for Champagne's traditional drinkers, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips.

"There'll never be enough champagne for everybody,'' says Francoise Peretti
of the Champagne Information Bureau.

At a refurbished London train station, they've built what they call the longest Champagne bar in Europe. But patrons here -- and elsewhere -- could soon be having the longest wait for a drink. Because champagne follows the money and, like the bubbly, the money's been flowing elsewhere.

In Russia, the market for champagne was up 44 percent last year to about 750,000 bottles. In India, it grew by 130 percent to more than 250,000 bottles.

And the Chinese are now consuming 30 times more champagne than they did just a few years ago -- from virtually nothing to almost 500,000 popping corks.

You might think they'd be rejoicing in the Champagne region of France, but there's a problem. Real champagne can only come from this one area and there's a limit to how much can be made.

The Champagne growers, who produce more than 300 million bottles a year, say the new markets only represent drops in the ice bucket ... for now.

But any new vines they manage to plant within the area won't produce a useful crop for at least 10 years. Their advice: Drink up now.