France: champagne orders resume their pre-pandemic rhythm
Champagne orders exploded in 2021. Here, the winegrower Vincent Legras, in Reims, July 28, 2021. © François Nascimbeni, AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
French champagne producers slash the bottles.
Their wines are benefiting from the improvement in the health environment and the recovery in activity: demand for bubbles is exploding, the sector expects to "
sell around 300
million bottles
" in 2021, ie a recovery much faster than expected compared to 2020.
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The year 2021
looks black for French viticulture
, but not for sales of champagne wines: this sector is even expecting a record year.
The order books attest to this.
According to the Champagne Committee, in a context of global economic recovery, most markets are experiencing a spectacular recovery.
Consequence: nearly 114 million bottles were shipped in the first half of 2021,
an increase of 50% compared to 2020
, a year marked by the pandemic and the consequent crisis.
It is in particular Europe, North America and Australia which are at the origin of this improvement.
With the exception of the French market, which is not leaving.
The sector expects to "
sell around 300
million bottles
", a return "
to a normal year faster
" than expected, said the president of the General Union of Winegrowers Maxime Toubart.
"
Diplomatic solution
" to the dispute with Russia
Champagne professionals are suffering the consequences of a new Russian law which penalizes them since their protected designation.
Signed on July 2, the new Russian wine law obliges champagne distributors to exchange their prestigious title for that of “
sparkling wine
” on the back-label of bottles written in Cyrillic,
reserving the name “
champanskoye
” for Russian producers of sparkling wines
.
This has created a conflict which should end with "
a diplomatic solution between France and Russia
", according to the mayor of Epernay, Franck Leroy.
Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie has promised that "
we will not let go
", indicating that he "
requested the Russian authorities
", he said during a visit to the Châlons Fair.
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To read also:
French wine production should fall to a historically low level
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