Champagne sales figures still make for grim reading, but there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.
In 2025, Champagne sent off 266.1 million bottles (down 2.1 percent from the 271.8 million in 2024) for a turnover of €5.6 billion (-3.5 percent compared to 2024's €5.8b). It is interesting that for the second year in a row, the turnover fares (slightly) worse than the volume, and that the decline is driven by exports.
This is in stark contrast to the pattern in vogue up till 2023. While the export markets more or less maintained their volume at 152m bottles (-0.9 percent or 1.4m bottles), export turnover came in at €3.6b, down 3.8 percent equaling €100m.
Some of the loss in revenue was undoubtedly driven by the roughly 17 percent year on year drop (equaling 1.45m bottles) in cuvée prestige exports. Japan is the only country in Champagne's top five export countries that slightly grew its share of cuvée prestige (up 7 percent to 110 000 bottles), even if its 2025 cuvée prestige sales remain nine percent (equaling 148 000 bottles) below its 2023 sales.
In the UK, Germany and Italy this segment lost close a third (31 percent, 31 percent and 32 percent respectively), while the US imported 13 percent less prestige cuvées than in 2024. It may pay to remember that the cuvée prestige segment already declined in 2024.
The rosé category and cuvées with higher dosage (extra dry or demi-sec) also continue to see their popularity dwindle in export markets. Rosé sales decreased by 6.4 percent year on year (887 000 bottles) while sweeter Champagne saw a 3.7 percent year on year decline (203 000 bottles).
Conversely, non-vintage Champagne clocked a marginal increase (0.8 percent, or 124 000 bottles), vintage Champagne sales increased by 6.8 percent year on year (135 000 bottles), and, finally, the biggest winner seems to be Champagne with a low dosage. The extra brut category increased by 13.5 percent (861,000 bottles) to match the volumes exported in 2022 (6.4m bottles).
The EU exports more or less remained stable at 49.8m bottles (down 0.7 percent, or 340 000 bottles) compared to last year, while exports to the rest of the world reduced by one percent (1.1m bottles)
American market fizzles
Taking a closer look per market, the US remains Champagne's top export market, both in volume (26.5m bottles) and value (€689m).
However, the volume sales decreased by 3.4 percent year on year (926 000 bottles) to fall below the 2023 low of 26.9m bottles, while the US turnover took a 15.9 percent fall, driven by a low dollar rate and potentially exacerbated by price adjustments made to (partially) absorb the Trump tariffs.
The Comité Champagne (CIVC)'s detailed sales per market report attributes the volume loss to the decline in rosé exports, down 15.3 percent year on year equaling a loss of 512 000 bottles to 2.8m bottles, its lowest point in a decade.
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