Champagne is losing its fizz. For months, running of the bulls has corked at weddings, dinners, parties and international travel – all the key sales components for French luxury wine marketed for decades as a must-have at any celebration.
Producers in the eastern Champagne region of France, the headquarters of the world industry, say they have lost an estimated $ 2 billion in sales this year as turnover fell by a third, an unmatched hammering in living memory. , and worse than the Great Depression.
They expect close to 100 million bottles to be languishing unsold in their warehouses by the end of the year.
“We are experiencing a crisis that we consider even worse than the Great Depression” of 1929, said Thibaut Le Mailloux of the Champagne Committee, known by its French acronym CIVC, which represents some 16,000 winemakers.
Recognizing the urgency of the problem, the CIVC is launching unprecedented damage limitation measures. Like the oil-producing countries, the committee regulates the size of the harvest each year to avoid the kind of excess production that would cause the drop in bottle prices. At a meeting scheduled for August 18, he is expected to impose such a limit that record quantities of grapes are destroyed or sold to distilleries at reduced prices.
One producer called it “an insult to nature” that the famous champagne grapes could be intended to produce alcohol to disinfect hands.
The prospect alarms smaller growers, who are more vulnerable than big houses.
Anselme Selosse, by Jacques Selosse Champagnes, called it “an insult to nature” that the famous champagne grapes could be destined to produce alcohol for hand sanitizer, as is happening in other wine-producing regions like Alsace after demand skyrocketed during the pandemic.
“We must destroy (the grapes) and pay to have them destroyed,” said Selosse, referring to the industry as a whole. “It is nothing but a catastrophe.”
“Champagne has never experienced anything like this before, even in the World Wars,” added Selosse. “We have never experienced … a sudden one-third drop in sales. Over a hundred million unsold bottles.
Major producers like Vranken-Pommery predict that the crisis could last for years.
“It should not be forgotten that (champagne) has lived through all the wars,” said Paul-Francois Vranken, founder of Vranken-Pommery Monopole. “But with the other crises, there was a way out. For now, there is no way out, unless we find a vaccine.”
Vranken said the very essence of champagne marketing, such as a drink prepared at parties and weddings, needs to be reevaluated to reflect the new normal: fewer holidays and the lack of group celebration events. The new branding strategy for him and other champagne companies will seek to highlight the status of wine as a quality drink produced naturally, and often organically, from a historical French region.
“Even if bars and clubs are closed for five years, we don’t plan to lose customers … There will be a big change in our marketing that will highlight the greatness of our wines,” said Vranken.
Selosse, which produces many “natural” champagnes without added sugar, also hopes the pandemic will spark reflection on future champagne marketing and how the multi-billion dollar industry is restructuring. He would like to see a more cooperative side of production, such as “community wine presses” to help pool costs for smaller producers.
Selosse said adaptability has served champagne well in the past, helping it evolve from a dessert wine in the 19th century to the modern dry version called “brut.”
He even thinks, but this is a minority opinion among the producers, the industry could move away from the effervescence and be able to produce all kinds of wine, as it did in the past: red, white or even.
In fact, there is literally no fizz.
