According to a new report from Comité Champagne, a trade association representing more than 16,000 winegrowers and 320 Champagne houses, the total number of Champagne shipments from France sank nearly 10% last year to 271 million bottles.
This marks the second consecutive year of declines, as consumers cut back on costs and a generally glum mood bubbles across the globe.
Maxime Toubart, co-president of the organization, said this is “no time for celebration, with inflation, conflicts around the world, economic uncertainty and a political wait-and-see attitude in some of Champagne’s biggest markets,” including the US and France.
Sales in Champagne’s birth-country, France, have even taken a hit, dipping 7% to a measly 118 million bottles.
LVMH is the world’s biggest Champagne producer and owns luxury brands Dom Pérignon, Krug and Veuve Clicquot.
Their Chief Financial Officer Jean-Jacques Guiony explained, “Champagne is quite linked with celebration, happiness, et cetera,”
“Maybe the current global situation, be it geopolitical or macroeconomic, does not lead people to cheer up and to open bottles of Champagne.”