That was one among many questions I put to the Champenois during a week-long stay in the region at the start of the year, and the responses were mixed, with some blaming falling sales on price rises, while others claimed it only had a small part to play.
The reason for considering this topic now is because it has become apparent that Champagne has lost almost 55 million bottles in global shipments since 2022, meaning that, in the words of Pol Roger president, Laurent d’Harcourt, “In two years, the region has gone back to what it was selling 20 years ago.”
He’s referring to the fact that global shipments dropped from 326 million bottles in 2022 to 299m in 2023, and then from 299m to 271m in 2024 – the lowest total since 2001, when the region shipped 263m bottles (that is, if we ignore the anomalous Covid-lockdown driven decline to 245m in 2020).
Meanwhile, since Champagne’s recent high-point, when demand soared as Covid-related restrictions eased – and the fizz moved from a position of excess to short-term scarcity – prices of the product have risen markedly: by approximately 25% since 2022.
This isn’t due to profiteering on the producer’s part, but a result of rising costs – chief among which has been the price of grapes, which are now averaging over €7 per kilogram, with each bottle needing at least 1.2kg of grapes.
But it’s not only the raw material that has gone up in price, but energy, wages, dry goods, and interest rates – the latter having a marked effect on the cost of production, as the Champagne hold a lot of stock for ageing – 15 months by law, but for any quality-minded producer, it’s a minimum of two years (and that’s for non-vintage).
This means that for those who have to finance stock – which represents the majority of producers – they are paying interest on the cash spent on making the Champagne for some time before they sell it.
As a result, your average bottle of Brut NV Champagne has gone up by around €10 in terms of retail price, off-promotion, which is a significant rise in a short space of time – between 2022 and last year.
This has meant that Champagne is now routinely over €40 a bottle, or £40 in the UK.
“No one wants to talk about prices, but the price of Champagne has gone up 20-25% in three years, and that’s the reason for the decline [in sales],” said Charles Philipponnat of Champagne Philipponnat.
Similarly, Sebastien Briend, sales and marketing director at Champagne Jacquart, told db, “Obviously one cannot avoid the [rising] price of Champagne, which is one of the reasons why sales of Champagne are down – the prices are higher, and that meant, for some consumers, they bought less Champagne.”
Continuing he recorded, “Brutal price increases have never been good for Champagne.”
Similarly, as recorded by our US contributor, Kathleen Willcox, wine retailers in the US are blaming a downturn in Champagne sales on the fact the fizz has got more expensive.
“Sales were down last year for a simple reason that some of the big companies just want to ignore, and that is price increases,” says Gary Westby, Champagne buyer for California’s rare and fine wine retailer, K&L Wine Merchants. “With a soft wine market in general, customers are not interested in big price jumps, and that showed through in our sales.”
Meanwhile, Ruinart CEO Frédéric Dufour made the point that “It’s difficult to increase your prices unless you are very strong brand”.
He also noted that in the French market – which is the region’s largest – “€40 [for a bottle of Brut NV Champagne] is a barrier for a lot of consumers, and the type of consumer who was buying from a good maison at €30-35 is now buying other categories: sparkling and non-sparkling.”
As several producers noted, it’s at the cheaper end of the Champagne spectrum where consumers tend to be most price sensitive – and this is also where the largest volumes of Champagne sales are concentrated, by which I mean Brut Non-Vintage labels sold in multiple retailers.
Such a point is made by Champagne Gardet owner, Christophe Prieux, who told db, “There was a general decrease in volume last year, and that was mainly due to decreased sales in supermarkets. The price of grapes and everything else has gone up a lot since Covid, and the customer in supermarkets is looking for low prices and very good Christmas offers, and the prices are higher, and the offers are not very good anymore.”
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