champagne

This year marks the 80th birthday of one of wine’s most successful generic marketing groups.

The Comité Interprofessional du Vin de Champagne (known these days as Comité Champagne) was formed in one of the darkest moments of the 20th century, helping to hold the industry together throughout the Nazi occupation of France.

Since then, it’s helped Champagne producers weather numerous further crises, most of them economic in nature. From the oil crisis of 1973, to the Great Recession of 2008, sales of fizz have plummeted during stormy periods in the global financial system.

But, as that 80th birthday approached, the organisation had to draw on all of its famed diplomatic ingenuity to weather what is unquestionably the biggest crisis Champagne has faced since the end of WWII.

In terms of sales, 2020 was, as the Comité’s director general Charles Goemaere puts it delicately in his introduction to the body’s annual report, a “particularly challenging” year for Champagne.

Total sales were down by 17.9% to 244 million bottles in volume for the full year versus 2019, while value dropped by 16.7%, shedding some €845m to leave the total standing at €4.2bn.

The going was especially rough in Champagne’s four main markets. France, which as the report says, has been in long-term decline, suffered its 10th consecutive drop in 2020, a 19.9% fall that consolidated the eclipse of domestic sales by exports: the French now account for 46.4% of all Champagne sales, versus 47.5% in 2019.

Meanwhile, the largest market by volume, the UK, lost 21.7% of its volume sales, while the US, the largest by value, was down 18.8% in volume, and Japan shed 24.5% of its imports compared to the previous year. Context and optimism How much these bald figures tell us about the real health of the Champagne sector is rather open to question, however. Certainly, the Comité can muster plenty of evidence to suggest these figures are the result of a one-off shock – a drop in sales that is almost entirely attributable to the unprecedented event of the world’s bars and restaurants closing for weeks or months at a time, more or less simultaneously.

As the Comité’s annual report points out: “The closure of bars and restaurants, restrictions on celebrations and the cancellation of numerous events have curtailed Champagne sales and consumption, often drastically.” But this is by no means the only story. “The year has been a roller coaster,” the report continues, “with very sharp falls (April -68%, May -56%) and equally sharp rises (+50 points between April and June), demonstrating the circumstantial nature of the drop in sales.”

Other indicators point to a deep resilience in the Champagne market. The most striking is the performance of Australia, where Champagne imports soared by a remarkable 11.2%, sparking reports of a shortage in the country. New Zealand, too, bucked the trend, with no drop in imports versus the previous year. As the report says, this is largely attributable to the two countries’ “effective handling of the pandemic”. In other words, in markets where life is somewhere closer to the old “normal”, Champagne thrives.

Champagne in the UK Much of the bigger global picture in the Champagne market can be found in microcosm in the UK.

The 21.7% drop in volume meant

Gosset has opened a dedicated space for visitors at its premises in Epernay including a boutique bar and park. The bar was conceived and designed by Champagne architect Giovanni Pace. Pace has created a relaxing oasis where the house’s wines, from the emblematic Grande Reserve to the prestigious Celebris, can be enjoyed.

Champagne’s rollercoaster year

It’s no big surprise that the global lockdown had a disastrous effect on Champagne sales. But the category has been bouncing back as restrictions lift, and even Brexit doesn’t seem to have derailed progress in the UK. By David Williams

the UK imported 21.3 million bottles of Champagne in 2020, and it still has some 16% of total Champagne exports. Meanwhile turnover fell by 21.9% to €338.2m, putting it just behind the US with 12.9% of total Champagne export turnover.

As the report points out, however, the UK was at the forefront of trends that have seen Champagne sales rebound since the first lockdown in spring 2020: a switch to drinking Champagne at home, which was very much a part of a premiumisation of take-home drinking in the absence of the on-trade and public events. Both supermarkets and merchants saw a rise in Champagne sales during 2020, with supermarket sales increasing by 6.1% to 9.8 million bottles, and with many retailers reporting a spike in online Champagne sales.

Meanwhile, the completion of Brexit, much-feared by the Champenois, has, at least according to the Comité, had relatively little effect on Champagne imports, with the EU-UK Trade & Cooperation Agreement “guaranteeing exemption from custom duties”.

A vintage year in the cellar One particularly intriguing detail amid the blizzard of numbers and data offered by the Comité’s annual report is the strong performance of the vintage brut category in the UK.

According to the Comité, almost all Champagne styles suffered a “major” slump in sales in 2020, with non-vintage, the runaway market leader with a share of more than 80%, inevitably enduring the worst losses.

Vintage brut was the single exception, with sales rebounding to a remarkable degree: the style actually returned to growth in 2020, up 18.1% to 0.3 million bottles after what the Comité calls “three years of sustained decline”.

It’s a surge that is in part attributable to the presence of wines from some of Champagne’s finest recent vintages in the market, including 2008 and 2012, but which also reflects a renewed interest from producers large and small.

Also on the up is rosé Champagne, at least in terms of market share: sales of

pink styles fared better in the UK than

Champagne as a whole, falling 12.8% in volume, but the style’s 10.7% slice of the market is its highest ever in the UK.

A vintage year in the vineyard Other reasons for optimism in Champagne can be found in the vineyard. Although harvesting conditions were scarcely ideal – many growers remarked on the extra expense and inefficiency caused by harvesting in a Covid-19-safe fashion – the consensus in the region is that 2020 is another excellent vintage, the third of a trilogy of fine, warmer vintages to match the legendary trio of 1988, 1989 and 1990.

With growers learning how to deal with ever-earlier harvests – 2020 was one of the earliest on record, starting a full two weeks before the 10-year average – there is a sense that 2020 may even be the finest of the trio.

It will also be the smallest. After a series of high-stakes meetings over the spring and summer of 2020, the tricky act of balancing the interests of the region’s two big power blocs – the growers and the houses – against a backdrop of large stocks of unsold wine, resulted in tight limits on production: a maximum of 8,000kg per hectare, or a total production of 230 million litres.

And still they came Covid-19 hasn’t stopped the Champagne houses making their usual flurry of prestige cuvée and vintage releases. Highlights of the past year or so have included such stunning 2008s as Krug, Charles Heidsieck Rosé and Rare, and Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon Rosé; the intriguing 2007 Bollinger RD; impressive 2013s from the likes of Cristal, Moët and Perrier-Jouët Belle-Epoque; and outstanding 2012s in the shape of Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill and Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame.

The increasing respect with which Champagne producers now treat the Meunier grape variety was also acknowledged in the first of a new series of wines from Billecart-Salmon, Les RendezVous de Billecart-Salmon. Conceived as one-off, “pop-up” releases, No 1 is a 100% Meunier Extra Brut, all sourced from the Marne Valley.

The ever-warmer weather experienced in the Champagne region is also leading an increasing number of producers to dabble in still wine. The most high profile – if minuscule in quantity – releases so far are from Louis Roederer, which launched a Pinot Noir red and a Chardonnay white under the Hommage à Camille label earlier this year. The inaugural 2018 vintages have attracted plenty of plaudits from the press, with the inevitable Burgundy comparisons only helped by the prices (€160 for the red; €140 for the white) and the scale of the production (1,600 bottles of red; 2,900 of white). Alliance Riceys – representing growers Although the houses continue to dominate sales of Champagne in the UK with 86% of the total, the grower movement continues to develop, along with a burgeoning sense of sub-regional identity.

Both trends can be seen in the formation of the Alliance Riceys, a new body formed to represent the interests of five récoltantmanipulant producers (Batisse-Lancelot, Pascal Manchin, Pehu Guiardel, Arnaud Tabourin and Phlipaux Père et Fils) in Les Riceys, a Pinot-dominated commune in the Côte des Bar in southern Champagne, which, as the Alliance points out, is closer to Chablis than Reims.

The group has already put together an online tasting for the UK trade in late June. Growers in other sub-regions of Champagne will no doubt be watching with interest as Champagne continues to develop in ways that the early founders of the Comité could only have dreamed of in the dark days of 1941.

Bollinger RD: one of a flurry of premium Champagne launches in the past year

ready to go

Nigel Huddleston puts some leading pre-mixed cocktails to the taste test – and finds that the category has come a long way since the bad old days of alcopops

The ready-to-drink spirits market has grown up, with a plethora of new entrants bringing more authentic and better quality takes to the market than the alcopops of yore.

It’s a fragmented category, with products ranging from small-can, 4%-ish abv spritz-style drinks that compete with sparkling wine and cider for picnics and barbecues, to near-perfect recreations of bartender-level skill at high abvs for at-home cocktail hour.

Rob Wallis entered the sector with Buveur, which came in an unusual 92.5cl glass bottle, but he’s reconfigured the brand as Moth – shorthand for mix of total happiness – in dinkysized cans, a format that manages to hit a more accessible price point.

“Buveur was very high-end – Selfridges, Harrods, the Ritz, those sort of places,” says Wallis. “We knew that by going into cans we could make it as easy to have a great cocktail as it is to have a beer or a glass of wine.

“We’re three or four times the strength of pretty much anything else in-can and definitely at the premium end. You can compare us with the thing you had at a cocktail bar last week rather than something else out of a can.”

Like Wallis, Chris Caruso, founder of Vacay canned cocktails, says the base spirit is important in stepping up the RTD cocktail offering.

“Our cocktails are mixed using award-winning craft spirits as a base,” he says. “They were created for a more sophisticated palate, a nice contrast to overly sweet traditional RTDs.”

William Grant has produced a series of 50cl, multi-serve cocktails under the name Batch & Bottle, each featuring one of its premium spirits: Monkey Shoulder Lazy Old-Fashioned, Hendrick’s Gin Martini, Reyka Rhubarb Cosmopolitan and Glenfiddich Scotch Manhattan.

Hendrick’s gin global ambassador, Ally Martin, says the Martini has been made by master distiller Lesley Gracie with input from a number of world-renowned bars including Maybe Sammy in Sydney and Brujas in Mexico City.

“We’re bringing the expertise of bartenders into the home in a convenient format,” he adds.

Here, we put 10 of the new entrants through their paces to gauge just how far RTDs have moved on.

Bottle Bar & Shop Negroni

Pack: 20cl bottle ABV: 20%

Mixologist Xhulio Sina (pictured above) handmakes a range of bottled cocktails running well into double figures, which he sells at his shop in south London and to other independents. Both this and his Remedy cocktail have won Great Taste Awards. The Negroni – made with Rock Rose gin, Campari, vermouth, bitters and orange pink grapefruit zest – is bang-on mission, with a sweet, fragrant approach and a big bitter finish that creeps up slowly. Bottle Bar & Shop bottlebarandshop.com

Bloody Classic

Pack: 25cl can ABV: 6.3%

It’s often the texture that lets RTDs down, but this Bloody Mary recreation comes with the gloopy, luscious body you’d expect from the real thing. It combines a boozy, vodka/sherry base with sweet ripe tomato, a savoury soy edge and a satisfying Worcester Sauce kick. Classic by name, classic by nature. Mangrove UK 0203 409 6565 mangroveuk.com Bellini

Pack: 20cl or 75cl bottle ABV: 5% Moth Old Fashioned

Pack: 10cl can ABV: 20%

This Venetian classic is so fruity and fresh that you’d swear it must be doing you some medical good. Just one sip and you’re transported to the Lido, with the unsweetened peach pureé and Canella Prosecco blending in a cocktail that tastes like it’s just been prepared for you before your very eyes. Stylish simplicity at a daytime-friendly ABV. Marcato Direct 07900 115372 Marcatodirect.co.uk

Bottle & Batch Hendrick’s Martini

Pack: 50cl ABV: 35%

At proper Martini strength, this is serious liquor with all the decadent unctuousness you’d hope for. The issue may be how to chill it down fast enough. Shaking with ice kind of defeats the object and putting ice in the drink dilutes the drink and sacrifices authenticity. We recommend keeping it in the fridge, with a 10-minute freezer turbocharge before serving, if you can wait that long for a drink. Anyhow, it is a lovely drop, as you’d expect from a product where four of the world’s top cocktail bars appear on the credits. William Grant & Sons 020 8332 1188 batchandbottlecocktails.com

Some RTD cocktail makers stretch their recipes into long-drink serves, losing something in the process. Moth, however, goes for bar-size portions for its range which also includes Espresso Martini, Negroni and Margarita, each of which have their contents writ large on the front of the can, and the source of the spirits. In this case, it’s English Whisky Co and Bob’s Bitters that combine with sugar for a rich, authentic and unashamedly boozy tipple. Moth Drinks 0203 538 8115 mothdrinks.com

Empirical Can No 1

Pack: 33cl can ABV: 10%

Copenhagen-based Empirical takes inspiration from experimental cuisine for its flavour explorations, which initially resulted in hard-to-pin-down spirits with arch names like The Plum, I Suppose. Its ready-to-serve cans opt for a more simple numerical sequencing – up to No 3 so far – and No 1 contains Oolong tea, toasted birch shavings, Douglas fir needles and green gooseberries. The base of “vacuum-distilled pilsner malt and Belgian saison yeast spirit” plants it in an intriguing grey area between cocktails and sour beer. Like avant garde music, modern art and highbrow literature, it won’t be everyone’s cup of Oolong, but it’s good to know there’s someone doing it. Mangrove UK 0203 409 6565 mangroveuk.com

Vacay Paloma

Pack: 33cl can ABV: 5.7%

Vacay has chosen its cocktail recipes carefully, aiming for drinks that fit the bill for longer-serve refreshment for a festival/barbecue vibe, with the Tom Collins and the Moscow Mule joining the Paloma in the line-up. It’s another that wears its ingredients on its sleeve, in this case tequila, pink grapefruit, lime juice and lengthening soda water, for a tangy, nottoo-sweet take on an under-rated classic. Vacay Drinks sales@haveavacay.com Taylor’s Chip Dry & Tonic

Pack: 25cl ABV: 5.5%

The Fladgate Partnership has embraced one of those numerous wine trade best-kept-secrets, white port and tonic, and put it in a picnic-friendly can. Or two cans to be precise, as there’s also a version made with its Croft Pink port. The Taylor’s take just gets the nod, a refreshing, floral and fruity affair where elderflower, green apple and pink grapefruit are all going on, before a clean, crisp, dry finish. Mentzendorff 020 7840 3600 mentzendorff.co.uk

Miami Cocktail Co Margarita Spritz

Pack: 25cl can ABV: 4% Strongman’s Tipple Apricot Americano

Pack: 20cl bottle ABV: 8.3%

This twist on the Aperol-led Italian aperitif trend starts off like a sweet stonefruit Negroni before that cocktail’s bitter finish comes on strong just before the finishing line. Part of a quirky range that also includes a passionfruit and fizz mix called Adult Movie Star and the pisco-laced Lima Sour. Strongman’s Tipple 07725 973893 strongmanstipple.com

Miami Cocktail’s organic, light-touch take on tequila’s most popular cocktail is at the crowd-pleasing end of the ready-to-drink spectrum. The tartness of the lime juice and the zesty orange of the triple sec you’d find in the classic recipe both come through in a juicy, pétillant drink that’s eminently drinkable and high on the refreshment scale. Miami Cocktail Co miamicocktail.com