The UK shows preference for rosé Champagne

Both value and volume sales of pink fizz have shot up by 11% and 10% respectively in the UK during the first months of 2025, finds Giles Fallowfield.  Last month db asked whether the UK could regain its position as Champagne's largest export market. And if the latest set of results for the sparkling wine category are anything to go by, it certainly might, especially when it comes to rosé Champagne. Total shipments of all Champagne to the UK in 2024 dropped 5.7% in volume and 12.7% in value in 2024, falling from 25.54m bottles in 2023 to 22.31m bottles, while value dropped from €550.31m in 2023 to €518.73m. The top 12 international marques accounted for 43.6% of this volume, the CIVC year-end figures reveal, some 9.73m bottles. If we look at the UK market using Nielsen analysis of the off trade, we can already see in 2024 (12 months to 28/12/2024) that the market declined by 1% in volume and 1.6% in value, with many of the major brands losing both volume and value, including the market leader Moët & Chandon, down 5.9% in volume and 4.6% in value. Private Label volume sales were up 13.4% in 2024, giving it a just over a quarter of the off-trade market (26.6%) by volume and it was ahead by 11.4% in value terms with a 19.2% market value share of the off trade. Of the 14 brands looked at by Nielsen, the brands in volume growth in 2024 were Taittinger (up 5% with a 5.3% market share), Nicolas Feuillatte (up 4.6% with a 5.4% volume market share), Pol Roger with 11% growth (1% market share), and Bollinger with substantial 32.6% volume growth and a market share of 3.8%. It’s a sign of the times that Aldi’s Nicolas De Montbart grew by 98.2% with a volume market share of 4.3%. These were also the only four brands (plus Own Label) to see value growth, but only Pol Roger managed value growth ahead of its volume growth at +11.2% vs +11%.

Pink growth

The total Nielsen monitored Champagne off-trade market is in decline, falling to 1.05m 9-litre cases in 2024, and it has dropped from 1.22m 9-litre cases in the 24 months since 2022. However, in early 2025 the market has picked up with value of total ‘white’ Champagne up 8%, in the year to date to 19/04/2025, while rosé styles value is up 11% in the same period. While we have of course had both Valentine’s Day and Mother's Day in this three and a half months period, pink Champagne has accounted for 15% of sales by value. Volume growth of white Champagne is only slightly ahead of value growth at +11%, yielding an average single bottle price of around £25.21 vs £25.95 in the same period of 2024. And discounting in the rosé Champagne category is clearly less necessary as pink Champagne volume growth was +10% (behind value growth) and the average bottle price grew from £37.52 in the same period of 2024 to £37.92. It is interesting to note that, perhaps against expectations, in this same period Champagne has outperformed the sparkling wine category, which is about four times larger in value terms (and more than 14 times larger in volume). Sparkling wine, rosé and white together, the latter growing at a faster rate - which suggests consumers opt for rosé Champagne for preference for important occasions - only saw value growth of 4% in the same period. The much smaller English Sparkling wine category grew by an impressive 17% in volume and 15% in value in the same period (year to 20/4/2025). Again, the average price of pink English fizz went up from £26.54 to £27.48 (compared with the same period at the start of 2024) while white English fizz fell back very slightly from £25.44 to £24.77 per bottle.