Champagne shipments finally on the up

After a weak start to the year and poor 2024, Champagne shipments rose in April by 3.6%, to 19.2m bottles versus April 2024, with exports up an encouraging 12.6%, reports Giles Fallowfield.  Champagne shipments rose to both European markets and destinations outside the EU, where the three most important countries for Champagne are the US, the UK (post-Brexit) and Japan, the former up 13.5% and the latter rising by 12.2%. However, French domestic shipments dropped a further 7.8% underlining that demand is flatlining in the birth place of Champagne. It’s significant that of the three supply sources for Champagne (the houses, the growers and the co-ops), it’s the last-named group that’s doing best in the current market, by some way. The co-ops saw their monthly shipments rise 13.8% overall in April, while their export shipments jumped 35.8%. The houses also saw some signs of recovery with the overall figure for April up 4.1%, and exports doing better with a 12.5% rise in the month. For the first four months of the year the market is broadly flat compared with the already weak performance in the first part of 2024 (+0.3%) at 67.6m bottles, with France down 7% and exports up 5.2%. The rolling MAT figure in the 12 months to the end of April 2025 paints a starker picture with 272m bottles shipped (down 4.6%) and the houses shipments falling 4.4%, co-ops down 5.3% and growers dropping 5.4%.

Strong volumes sold in January

The year started quite well in January 2025 with volume up in the top 15 export markets by 7.9%, although value lagged behind at only +1.6%. The UK did better still with January volume up 10.5% but value actually down 9.6%. Volume of Champagne shipments to the French domestic market was also down 7.6%. February was very weak in both the UK and France with double digit declines in both volume and value, but for the top 15 markets volume was up 6.2% with value not far behind at +4.2%. Things picked up in March with volume rising in both the UK and the top 15 export markets for Champagne, +6.6% and +27.3% respectively. But while value also rose in the top 15 markets by 14.2%, it actually dropped in the UK by 9.9%, suggesting the inflow of more Own Label style wines, many sourced from the co-operatives in Champagne. France too managed at tiny increase in volume (+0.7%). Coming right up to date the provisional figures for April are a good deal more positive with the Top 15 export markets up by 30.3% in volume and 23.1% in value, and the UK also in volume and value growth, rising 27.2% and 6.6% respectively. This puts volume in the year to date at +17.6% and value at+10.4% in the top 15 export markets for Champagne. Furthermore, the sparkling wine region is on the cusp of a new era for Champagne tourism, with unprecedented levels of investment across the appellation’s 34,000 hectares. It is hoped that this, along with a number of intriguing style trends will help bolster sales following a small 2024 harvest.