Best bubbly will go for about $1,000 a pop

If you are looking for ways to spend your Telecom shares gains or you want to make that millennium party go with a bang, try getting hold of a bottle of 1959 BillecartSalmon champagne, officially the best bubbly made this century.

An international jury assembled in the Swedish capital voted the '59 BillecartSalmon, from a small family-owned champagne house in Mareuil-sur-Ay, eastern France, the best of the century after tasting 150 champagnes over three days.

However, you'd be hard pressed to find it in your local off-licence, no matter how upmarket you think it is, because there are only a couple of dozen bottles left in the world and only the rich and famous can afford it.

If you do manage to lay your hands on a bottle, don't be too quick to pop the cork for the party-goers. Experts say Billecart-Salmon '59 should not be wasted on a large crowd or served with a heavy meal.

"It should be drunk only with your nearest and dearest. You don't want to serve it at a big party because you won't have time to focus on it," Ms Serena Sutcliffe, responsible for wine trade at auction house Sotheby's, said. Champagne makers around the world are bracing for a huge increase in sales in the last few months of this year as people prepare to celebrate the start of the new millennium.

"The Anglo-Saxon world considers the new millennium as an historical event of the utmost importance and are desperate for major vintages," said Jean-Marie Laborde, chairman of the world's biggest champagne maker, Moet et Chandon.

The French, on the other hand, are remaining aloof and feigning lack of interest in the celebrations, Mr Laborde said. While the experts were quaffing the champagne supernovas in Stockholm, most people are more concerned with getting their hands on reasonable bubbly for December 31st parties.

For cost-conscious party-goers, a much talked about shortage of champagne at the end of this year should not materialise as producers have been preparing for it for years.

"We've been preparing for this sales boom since 1998 . . . that's why I know exactly, down to the last case, how much we'll be selling up to December 31st. Our strategy has been set in stone for months," said Mr Laborde.

"Everybody's going to panic this autumn. There is going to be enough, but if you want the very best, there may be a shortage," said Ms Sutcliffe, one of seven judges at the champagne competition.

While the honour of winning was a tribute to the French family - who also took second place honours with their 1961 vintage - these years were great ones in the history of champagne making anyway, experts say.

"I'd be surprised if one bottle after this went for less than $1,000 (€977)," said Ms Sutcliffe. "There was no complication to this wine - it was just superb. It had a combination of freshness and great depth of flavour."

The weather in 1959-1961 was near-perfect for wine making in the Champagne region around the towns of Reims and Epernay, and producers were still using old oak casks.

"You had to know what you were doing in 1959 because it was a very hot year. This shows the strength of what a family dedicated to quality can do," Ms Sutcliffe said.

The Billecart-Salmon beat competition from some classic champagnes including a 1952 Gosset, 1964 Moet et Chandon, 1979 Ruinart and a 1961 Krug, although the judges acknowledged that only a whisker of difference separated the top places.

The oldest bottle chosen for the competition was a 1911 Pol Roger and the youngest included several from 1990.