The bubble is doing well. Champagne sales exceeded the record six billion euros turnover mark for the first time in 2022, driven by an increase in volumes and the targeting of a wealthy clientele, the Champagne Committee announced on Wednesday in a statement.
In 2021, the total export value was €5.5 billion.
In volume, sales increased last year by 1.6%, to 326 million bottles. Results that turn the page on 2020, a dark year in which the pandemic had reduced sales to some 244 million bottles.
More vintage cuvées
For David Chatillon, president of the Union of Champagne Houses and co-president of the Champagne Committee, the sparkling Champagne “has naturally accompanied consumers around the world, who have rejoiced at the end of confinements, have rediscovered the taste for celebration. , outings, trips”.
These performances “reward our efforts to ensure that champagne remains an exceptional wine”, welcomed Maxime Toubart, president of the general union of winegrowers and other co-president of the Champagne Committee.
“The cuvées are more and more vintage, value the typicity, the terroir, sell for more, go further and further,” he observes.
“The French market is not extensible”
With 187.5 million bottles, exports increased by 4.3% over one year, while sales in France were down with 138.4 million bottles (-1.7% compared to 2021). The share of exports in total sales now exceeds 57% compared to 45% ten years ago.
The first export market remains the United States, specifies Maxime Toubart, who recalls that “the French market is not extensible”. The cessation of exports to Russia has not had an impact, he says, because it is “a small market of less than two million bottles”. The interprofession also expresses “cautious” optimism for 2023, given the global geopolitical and economic context.