This is the short edition of Morales, first broadcast on the BBC World Service.

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Hello and welcome to Morales on the BBC World Service. I'm Tim Harford.

This week I'll be running my slide rule over the end of year football fixtures.

But first, I'm sorry to break the news to you, especially since I know some of you will be celebrating Christmas.

But I'm afraid there's no wine left.

The US Financial Services firm Morgan Stanley has warned of a global wine shortage.

Awful.

Awful news.

I sent our reporter, Sharla McDonald, out to try to snap out the last few bottles for the Morales Christmas bash.

I'm just sort of a wine shop. I was expecting the shelves to be completely empty, but they didn't seem to be.

Oh no, completely fully stocked. We've got an entire cellar full of champagne.

So do you think there's a global wine shortage?

I think there's plenty of wine to be had.

I'm a little bit perplexed if I'm honest with you. I've been to a few different places now and this is quite a lot of wine.

It's just going to ask a few people coming out of these shops if they've had any problems.

I walked into the local shops, saw the wine I wanted and purchased it.

Strange, but there's a global wine shortage.

Not in my local shop.

News media organisations across the world reported this so surely it must be true.

But loyal listener Benoit Hubert from Australia is suspicious and so am I.

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