<div><p>Italy's Asti Spumante sparkling wine is on course to outsell French Champagne as revellers around the world toast in the New Year, a study for an agricultural trade magazine predicted Tuesday.</p><p>Some 140 million bottles of the festive fizz from Italy's northern Piedmont region are to be corked open worldwide over Christmas and New Year, according to a Deloitte study conducted for Coldiretti magazine.</p><p>Asti sales are expected to edge ahead of Champagne, with sales of the prestigious -- but more more expensive -- Gallic tipple already down 41 percent for the first half of 2009, the report says.</p><p>The bubbly gets the patriotic vote, the study showed, with three-quarters of Italians planning to celebrate Christmas with traditional "Made in Italy" produce such as Asti sparkling wine or sugar-dusted panettone or pandoro cakes.</p><p>Italians were more attached to home-grown tradition than their neighbours in Europe, where an average of 59 percent plan to buy national foodstuffs for Christmas.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=65480557&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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