Wednesday, 18 February, 2026
The Drinks Business, Patrick Schmitt
That is the view of David Chatillon, co-president of the Comité Champagne and chairman of the Union des Maisons de Champagne (UMC), who met with db last week in Reims.
Champagne shipments totalled 266 million bottles in 2025, a 2% decrease compared with 271 million in 2024. While describing the result as “a low level”, Chatillon argued that the figures were distorted by exceptional shipment patterns to the United States at the end of 2024, meaning underlying demand in 2025 was broadly stable year-on-year.
Fearing potential tariff increases under the new US administration, some producers accelerated shipments in late 2024, sending additional volumes to the market. Those extra deliveries — estimated at around 2 million bottles — inflated 2024’s US shipment figures and led to temporary overstocking, which in turn dampened re-orders in early 2025.
As a result, Chatillon said, “2025’s shipments are probably exactly the same as 2024 if you take into account the shipments to the US that were sent in December 2024.”
Strip out the volumes effectively brought forward into 2024, and the decline in 2025 appears far less pronounced.
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