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Why Champagne performed better in 2025 than the figures suggest

16 February 2026 By Patrick Schmitt

The year-end shipment figures for Champagne show a global decline in demand, but underlying consumption appears to have held up better than the headline numbers suggest.

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That is the view of David Chatillon, co-president of the Comité Champagne and chairman of the Union des Maisons de Champagne (UMC), who met with db last week in Reims.

Champagne shipments totalled 266 million bottles in 2025, a 2% decrease compared with 271 million in 2024. While describing the result as “a low level”, Chatillon argued that the figures were distorted by exceptional shipment patterns to the United States at the end of 2024, meaning underlying demand in 2025 was broadly stable year-on-year.

Fearing potential tariff increases under the new US administration, some producers accelerated shipments in late 2024, sending additional volumes to the market. Those extra deliveries — estimated at around 2 million bottles — inflated 2024’s US shipment figures and led to temporary overstocking, which in turn dampened re-orders in early 2025.

As a result, Chatillon said, “2025’s shipments are probably exactly the same as 2024 if you take into account the shipments to the US that were sent in December 2024.”

Strip out the volumes effectively brought forward into 2024, and the decline in 2025 appears far less pronounced.

Export markets resilient

Elsewhere, Champagne’s key export markets showed resilience. The UK, Japan and Canada all recorded growth in 2025, according to Chatillon. However, the overall performance was weighed down by weakness in the domestic French market.

France, Champagne’s largest single market, accounted for the majority of the global decline. Shipments there fell by just over 4 million bottles, from 118.2 million in 2024 to 114 million in 2025 — representing more than 80% of the overall global drop of 5 million bottles.

Exports, by contrast, declined only marginally, slipping by 1.2 million bottles from 153.2 million in 2024 to 152 million in 2025.

Value better than volume

In value terms, the fall was less severe than in volume. The provisional figure for 2025 stands at €5.7 billion, compared with €5.8 billion in 2024 — a decline of 1.7%, versus the 2% drop in volume (see figures below).

More broadly, Chatillon suggested that Champagne’s performance reflects consumer sentiment rather than spending capacity. “Champagne is a good barometer of the global mood,” he said. “The mood of the past two years has not been very happy in terms of geopolitics and economics, with warfare and inflation.”

In France in particular, he noted that political instability has dampened celebratory consumption. “Champagne is not a necessity, and the mood in France is not favourable for drinking Champagne,” he said, adding that French savings levels are at their highest in 30 years. “It is not a question of spending power, but one of mood.”

Growth expected in 2026

Looking ahead, Chatillon does not expect a significant rebound in the immediate term. “Forecasting is difficult, because the trends are hard to read, but we are hoping shipments will increase, even if only by a few million bottles — there is no major rebound expected,” he said.

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His cautious outlook reflects the likelihood that consumer sentiment in major Champagne markets will remain subdued, while pricing pressures persist. The strength of the euro against key currencies — including the pound, dollar, yen and Australian dollar — is making Champagne more expensive in export markets, even though production costs within the region are expected to remain relatively stable this year.