InvestigationAfter a year 2020 undermined by the Covid-19, producers in the region are facing exceptional demand in 2021. To the point that, for some vintages, the shortage of bottles is there.
Who could have imagined that champagne would go from red to green so quickly? Let’s sum up. With the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020 marks one of the biggest crises that bubble wine has known. Sudden stop of exports, cancellation of celebrations, closure of bars and restaurants, ban on gatherings. All the opportunities to blow the cork disappear. The summer and then the end of the year put the breakage into perspective, but the results all the same ended in losses of 20% on average compared to 2019.
At the start of 2021, scalded, the Interprofessional Committee of Champagne Wine (CIVC), which oversees the vineyard and governs production, is convinced that amateurs, in France and abroad, will not drink more than usual. The signs of the Covid are still there. The organization even thinks that it will take several years for the sector to recover. In reality, it didn’t take a year. Better: 2021 will be remembered as the year of crazy growth. To the point of filling the deficit of the previous one? We will have to wait for the closing of the accounts in early 2022 to confirm this, but it is possible.
In any case, the unpredictable arises: stockouts everywhere in the big brands, requests from foreign countries that are not being met, tensions on the market, French wine merchants who are desperate not to receive the funds requested, satellite companies that fail to keep pace.
Euphoria
“In nearly fifty years of profession, I have never lived a similar period! says Fabrice Rosset, CEO of Deutz champagnes. I remember the frenzy of 1999 with the turn of the millennium, when demand was high, so many people wanted to party with champagne. But the euphoria is even more marked this year. “ The phenomenon is such that the boss of this house located in Aÿ, near Epernay, has agreed to deliver his figures. They make you dizzy: + 80% in sales for the classic cuvée and + 40% for the prestige cuvée, “Amour de Deutz”, which nevertheless exceeds 100 euros. “And + 35% overall compared to 2019, which was our record year, exclaims the CEO. In overall turnover, compared to 2020, while the reopening of borders is not complete and, even if all the indicators are not looking good, we are over 60%. It’s heartwarming: you talk to a happy president. “
Did the CIVC have abusively cried wolf last year? Jean-Marie Barillère, its co-president, denies it: “ Such a rebound was unpredictable, and each month surprises us more than the last. “ The latter suggests a clue of explanation: world consumption in 2020 would have been higher than shipments from champagne houses, the only data that the CIVC has.
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