NEW Year's Eve always calls for a special celebratory drink - this year more than ever. And if we are to heed the advice of those who take their drinking seriously, Champagne is the only way to toast the new millennium.
Those in the business have been planning what to drink on the big night for months, if not years. But keeping hold of the good stuff is not always easy.
'I've drunk all the Dom Perignon, so we will be drinking La Grande Dame Champagne,' says Jeanette Paterson from Watson's Wine Cellar. She insists that Champagne is the only thing to drink on New Year's Eve and says sales suggest that Bollinger 1990 is the hot choice for this year.
Lau Chi-sun, editor of Wine Magazine, agrees that 1990 vintage Champagne is popular. 'Anything from 85 or 90 is perfect to drink now. I'll be drinking a couple of vintage Champagnes,' she says, adding that she stashed some bottles in her cellar a few years ago.
William Mark Yiu-tong, of the Federation of Restaurant Owners, reckons 1989 was an excellent year: he put aside a few bottles of crux Champagne 1989 four years ago. 'I suppose it is unusual for a man to be so organised, but the millennium is an auspicious occasion, so I'm glad I thought ahead,' he says.
The ultimate vintage to toast the new millennium is 1900, according to Vincent Cheung, the le Maitre Commanderie de Bordeaux of a local wine society. 'Champagne is definitely the order of the day and those with some money to burn will be drinking 1900,' says Mr Cheung, who put aside a bottle of Chateau de B'syquem two years ago.