Will we have champagne for the end of the year celebrations? Big retailers and some wine merchants have been worried since the summer that they won’t get all the bottles of champagne they need. To satisfy everyone, some houses limit the volumes put on the market. Because demand exceeds supply: volumes were reduced in the previous two years to adapt to the slack in demand during the health crisis and the recovery this year is stronger than expected. For both exports and the domestic market, consumption picked up again.
While volumes are still lower, shipments to France increased by 3.5% from January to August 2022 compared to last year and by 13% abroad, driven in particular by the explosion of consumption in the United States, according to figures provided by the General Union of Champagne Viticulturists (SGV). Some distributors have also anticipated their purchases for fear of shortages. Representatives of the Champagne winegrowers, however, want to reassure about availability and make sure that consumers have nothing to worry about.
a little more expensive
“It is not a shortage, but a supply management”, specifies the general director of the SGV, Laurent Panigai, who specifies that the sector can play with “different shock absorbers” to “regulate” an overheating of the market. In champagne, stocks are accumulated for four years, which allows them to fall back on the reserve if necessary. The quota, that is, the limitation of distribution, also allows volumes to be smoothed out over time. In addition, the sector is closely monitoring the French market, alert to a possible erosion of sales in the inflationary context.
There may not be the full range, and you may have to wait a bit longer to get certain bottles, but we can pop the champagne on Christmas or New Year’s Eve, we’re ok. It will be a bit more expensive, though: The champagne industry is not immune to skyrocketing production costs, from energy to packaging to rising wages. According to the SGV, prices have already increased by +1.3% for winemaker champagnes and 10.4% for house champagnes between January and June 2022.
Source: BFM TV
