THE latest and possibly most esoteric investment opportunity on the Irish market is to buy stocks of champagne before the millennium creates a shortage. The Paris based House of Delacroix says punters who buy now to sell into the expected shortage could double their investment.

It is now widely expected, Delacroix says, that come 1999 demand for champagne will exceed supply. Banker Morgan Stanley is quoted in support, predicting a shortage of 45 million bottles.

"The financial opportunity is very simple. We are opening the door to one of the most tightly regulated industries in the world and allowing investors the chance to buy in bulk selected fine champagne at below current retail prices", says the Delacroix brochure now circulating among Irish business people.

The deal is that investors pay £216 for each "Millennium Package" of Champagne Lantz.

The full package is £1,536, or £3,078 for the "Grande Millenium Package". Delacroix will store the wine "in the best available facilities" until the investor believes it is time to sell.

However, SOPEXA, the "Food from France" organisation, disputes Delacroix's central thesis.

Ms Dominique Geary, Sopexa's representative in Ireland, says there is "no serious reason" to suppose there will be a champagne shortage at the millennium.

Ms Geary advises the "greatest circumspection" when buying champagne in anything but a bottle.

Irish trade sources say Delacroix's offer is not cheap. They say a supermarket chain here can buy own brand quality champagne (in bond) at £6.80 a bottle and good quality (not grande marque) at £8 a bottle.

When taken out of bond, duty would be £38.70 per case of 12 and the VAT man will be looking for 21 per cent.

The Irish Times put it to a spokesman for the House of Delacroix that the champagne industry did not believe there would be a shortage.

The spokesman replied that the industry was out of step with Morgan Stanley and sundry publications.