No one had dared to hope for such high sales figures. In 2021, Champagne sold 322 million bottles. An excellent result and an increase from 2020 by 32%, which was admittedly the worst year in a long time, and an increase by almost 8% from 2019. 322 bottles are not a record in volume – 2007 still holds that with 338 million bottles sold – but a record in value, 5.5 billion euros.
The record turnover is probably due to do with the producers’ talent for getting high prices for their bottles, rather than some “wine shortage”. The stocks are hardly depleted. 2019 and 2020 were two years of weak sales, after a series of years with sluggish sales. In 2020, Champagne even made the drastic decision to sharply limit harvest yields in an attempt to keep prices up, despite both high quantity and quality of grapes. Much excellent fruit was thrown to the birds.
The gap between the French market and the export market has widened. In 2021, 142 million bottles remained in France, while exports soared to 180 million. 2018 was the first year that the export market surpassed the domestic one.
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