After a year in the starting blocks in 2022, the year 2023 marks a “return to normal” in terms of volume for champagne producers. A great comeback for sparkling wine, whose sales were strongly affected by the health crisis linked to Covid-19 in 2020. Total shipments of champagne in 2023 amounted to 299 million bottles, or 8.2% less only in 2022, indicated the committee, which brings together producers and traders, in a press release.
Export represents “more than 57% of total champagne sales
Professionals are not worried about it: their strategy is to “move upmarket”, that is to say, to market the bubbles at a higher price, even if it means selling less of them. “Despite the drop in volumes, the move upmarket of vintages, especially for export, has enabled the appellation to maintain its turnover above six billion euros”, an amount exceeded for the first time times in 2022, underlines the committee. “The national market is suffering more than export markets from inflation which has weighed on household budgets throughout the year,” he specifies.
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic caused sales to fall to some 245 million bottles, then in 2021 they rose to 320 million, before reaching 326 million in 2022. From now on, exports represent “more than 57 % of total sales, compared to 45% ten years ago,” notes the committee.
Quoted in the press release, the president of the general union of winegrowers, co-president of the Champagne committee, Maxime Toubart, welcomes this “return to normal”. With “a maintained value, Champagne remains optimistic for the future, even if champagne is sensitive to the geopolitical context and the evolution of the global economy”, underlines David Châtillon, president of the Union of champagne houses and also co-chair of the committee.