Sparkling wine has always incited emotion, it signals celebration before the cork has even left the bottle. The opportunity now is that consumers are no longer waiting for a milestone or celebration.
ProWein’s 2026 Sparkling Report describes sparkling wine as more resilient than still wine amid declining global wine consumption, economic uncertainty and changing drinking habits. It estimates the global sparkling wine market at approximately R903.7 billion (US$54.7 billion) in 2025. Wine Australia, citing IWSR data, says sparkling wine increased its share of global wine consumption from around 8% in 2012 to 13% in 2025, while red wine fell from about 52% to 43%.
For South Africa, those global numbers matter, but the more interesting story is what is already happening locally.
Local growth is already showing
SAWIS figures show domestic Cap Classique sales reaching 4.92 million litres in 2024, up 16.3% on the previous year. Rosé Cap Classique was particularly strong, rising from 1.14 million litres to 1.71 million litres. Exports moved in the same direction, with Cap Classique exports increasing by 19% to 2.4 million litres.
Those are relatively small volumes within South Africa’s wider wine industry, but the direction is encouraging. At a time when many established wine categories are under pressure, bubbles are finding more room locally and abroad.
The category also has depth. South Africa’s first bottle-fermented sparkling wine was produced in 1971 by Simonsig, while the Cap Classique Producers Association was established in 1992 to promote the category locally and internationally. Fifty years later by 2021 it had grown from 14 founding members to more than 100 registered producers, with total production estimated at 10.25 million bottles.
The category is also increasingly structured around quality. Cap Classique requires a minimum of 12 months’ bottle fermentation and lees ageing, while many producers opt for considerably longer. At the 2026 Amorim Cap Classique Challenge, 138 wines were entered across six categories, including an extended ageing class for wines aged for seven years or more. António Amorim, Chairman and CEO of Corticeira Amorim and decades-long supporter of local Cap Classique, also pointed to the consistency of quality across the South African category, rather than only a handful of standout producers.
More reasons to drink bubbles
Part of sparkling wine’s resilience comes from moving beyond traditional celebration occasions. Wine Australia notes that at-home consumption during and after the Covid-19 pandemic helped normalise bubbles outside special occasions, while spritz serves broadened the category further.
That shift suits Cap Classique. It can sit comfortably at the premium end of the market, but it is also versatile enough to work with food, by the glass or as an aperitif. Locally, the opportunity may be as simple as creating more reasons to open a bottle: Cap Classique at brunch, sparkling rosé with lunch or bubbles poured because friends have arrived rather than because somebody is getting married.
Every additional occasion, or non-occasion, helps grow the category.
Building a stronger identity
South African producers have moved well beyond proving that the country can make serious traditional-method sparkling wine. Cap Classique now spans fresh, youthful styles, rosé, vintage releases and extended lees ageing. That diversity creates room to build a category around more than price.
Champagne shows the value of origin and a protected category name, while Prosecco shows what sustained collective marketing can achieve. Harpers reports that Prosecco DOC sold 667 million bottles globally in 2025, with sales valued at approximately R66.7 billion (€3.6 billion).This month, its consortium launched a major UK campaign focused not simply on selling bottles, but on communicating quality, provenance and authenticity.
For Cap Classique, the lesson is not to copy either category. It is that quality must be matched by consistent communication. Consumers need repeated reasons to recognise the name, understand what it means and know why it is different.
South African expertise is travelling too. Recently, Graham Beck released its first English sparkling wine, made from grapes sourced in Hampshire and West Sussex. The limited 2018 vintage launched locally at R1 200 a bottle after more than six years on the lees. It is a small project in volume terms, but an interesting reversal of the usual narrative: South African sparkling wine expertise being applied in another premium sparkling region.
Turning opportunity into value
The wider wine industry continues to face declining consumption in mature markets, rising input costs and intense competition. Against that backdrop, categories that can build value rather than simply chase volume become increasingly important.
Sparkling wine offers that possibility, and South Africa already has evidence that Cap Classique is moving in the right direction. Domestic sales are growing. Exports are growing. Producers have the technical expertise, vineyard diversity and a category with a name of its own.
The next step is visibility: more by-the-glass listings, more food occasions, stronger category communication and greater confidence in presenting Cap Classique as South African rather than as an alternative to something else.
The bubbles are already in the bottle. The opportunity is getting them onto more tables – here at home and further afield.