Champagne sales fizzle as prosecco bubbles

Sales of champagne from France have slipped considerably in the past year as more consumers turn to cheaper bubblies, like proseccos from Italy, Spanish cavas and U.S. sparkling wines.

CBC News Posted: Dec 31, 2009 3:43 PM EST | Last Updated: December 31, 2009

Sales of champagne from France have slipped considerably in the past year as more consumers turn to cheaper bubblies, like proseccos from Italy, Spanish cavas and U.S. sparkling wines.

"It's just like consumers pushed the 'reset' button," says analyst Jon Fredrikson, who tracks wine shipments at his Woodside-based Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates.

After a decade of reaching for expensive, big-name brands, "we're back to a whole new reality. [Consumers are] still drinking sparkling wines, but moving down to lower prices."

For the first nine months of this year, shipments of all French sparkling wines, including from the region of Champagne, were down 28 per cent compared to the same period the year before, says Fredrikson.

Should parents let their teenagers have champagne at home on New Year's Eve?

One argument says no, it sends the wrong message that underage drinking is OK. The other side argues that a ceremonial glass of the bubbly at home with family encourages moderation and makes a forbidden activity less tantalizing.

John Lieberman, director of operations for Visions Adolescent Treatment Centers in California, is firmly opposed to the notion that introducing children to alcohol at home makes them less likely to abuse it later on.

"The studies show that the earlier someone has their first experience with drugs, or alcohol or R-rated movies or sex, the earlier somebody does that, the more apt they are to have an addiction, or a problem or consequences as a result of that behaviour," Lieberman said.

Jeffrey Wolfsberg, head of Jeffrey Wolfsberg & Associates, which offers seminars to students and parents on drug and alcohol use and prevention, acknowledged that in some ethnic cultures, drinking wine is a regular part of family meals and holiday celebrations, and children are often permitted a sip.

But Wolfsberg said it's the unique context of such gatherings that sends children a carefully calibrated message.

"Alcohol is there but it's not centre stage," he said.

Wolfsberg, whose extended family is Greek, said that in cultures where wine is part of a celebration, drunkenness tends to be strongly disapproved of, too, sochildren also get the message that excessive drinking is bad and "drinking more is not better."

Compare that to prosecco shipments, which were up 11 per cent during the same period.

Sales have dropped for some pricier California bubbly, but lower-priced sparklers were up 11 per cent to 3.2 million cases.

California winemaker Jen Wall sees the trend as a chance for sparkling wine to burst out of the "special occasion" category.

"We've seen an increase in sales through the entire year," says Wall, winemaker at Modesto-based Barefoot Wine, which aims to sell 350,000 cases of bubbly this year. "We're really making a big effort to let people know that it's OK to drink sparkling wine for occasions other than New Year's, birthdays, etc."

Barefoot has five different sparkling wines, all under $10 a bottle, "kind of the sweet spot for sparkling wine," says Wall.

In recent years, sparkling wine has set off a spirited champagne campaign, with French producers and their supporters maintaining that only wines from the Champagne region of France should carry that name. The United States has agreed to stop new domestic producers from using the name, but many, including Barefoot, were grandfathered since they have existed for years.

Sam Heitner, director of the Washington-based U.S. Champagne Bureau, which recently launched a new ad campaign urging consumers to find out the origins of their wines, says producers are taking the long view.

"They've been through World War I, World War II, phylloxera [a vine disease]. As long as they continue to focus on developing and producing a quality product that ... has always been the formula that has worked well for champagne."

With files from The Associated Press

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