Champagne sustained Sir Winston Churchill throughout the Second World War. "In victory we deserve it," said Churchill of his customary Pol Roger, "and in defeat we need it". But today's consumers are not following this axiom. The latest figures from France's champagne wine board, the CIVC, show a 23 per cent fall in the number of bottles leaving the main cellars in October compared with the same month a year earlier. Exports to Britain fell by eight per cent in the first nine months of this year, while sales to the US collapsed by 17 per cent. These falls were recorded before the full impact of the financial storm. But Champagne had been robustly confident of rising global demand, so much so that the region recently sought to increase the number of its appellation vineyards. But after two decades of steady growth of around two per cent per year, the latest figures suggest the party might be over. "You need to feel good, to feel happy to drink champagne. It's a way of life. And when the environment is not so good, people perhaps don't feel quite like drinking as much," said Daniel Lorson, CICV spokesman. But following Churchill's maxim, he added: "Champagne can be a remedy to the current atmosphere." Last year, no less than 338 million bottles were sold – an all time record which 2008 was never likely to surpass. But wine experts believe that champagne producers are finally paying for their greed, having consistently raised prices above inflation. Mr Lorson said it was too early to say whether the drop in the number of bottles leaving Champagne houses actually meant that people were drinking less of the stuff. It could be that supermarkets are selling off existing stocks rather than buy more. The Champagne houses themselves are relentlessly positive, stressing how a 21 per cent rise in sales between 2000 and 2007 left them with dangerously few bottles in storage. "We needed to replenish our own stocks, as our biggest risk is a dearth," said Ghislain de Montgolfier, the head of Bollinger, in an interview with Le Monde. Mr Lorson said that it still made economic sense to expand the area covered by appellation vineyards, a decision taken earlier this year before the full scale of the economic crisis became clear. "We will plant them gradually as world demand grows, and if there is no demand in world demand then we will review the situation. In any case, there will be no champagne bottled from new vineyards until 2020," he said. At least 83 per cent of champagne is sold and consumed in a 600-mile radius around Reims, the Champagne capital. "That means there's still a lot of potential for growth further afield," said Mr Lorson.Champagne sales collapse
The credit crunch has taken the fizz out of champagne sales which have shown their first major fall for two decades.
Wednesday, 24 December 2008
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