Will there be champagne for New Year’s Eve? That’s the question we need answers to.
So far, Coronavirus has impacted retail sales, car sales, and real estate sales. Now, champagne sales is feeling the wrath of the Covid-19 pandemic. The worldwide stay at home orders has made weddings, dining out, parties and travel nearly impossible. Champagne companies rely on these social occasion for the majority of their sales.
Euro News says that “Producers in France’s eastern Champagne region, headquarters of the global industry, say they’ve lost an estimated €1.7 billion ($2 billion) in sales for this year. This is a loss unmatched in modern history and worse than the Great Depression. An estimated 100 million bottles of champagne will remain unsold in their cellars.
In response to the growing inventory of champagne, the International Champagne Committee (known in French as CVIC) is destroying and liquidating grapes to distilleries in an effort to control the market.
Champagne producers are also re-thinking how they market to audiences in the future. Paul-Francois Vranken (founder of Vranken-Pommery) said the very essence of champagne marketing — as a drink quaffed at parties and weddings — needs to be re-evaluated to reflect the new normal: Fewer festivities and a lack of celebratory group events. The new branding strategy for his, and other champagne companies, will seek to highlight the wine’s status as a naturally, and often organically, produced quality drink from a historic French region.
It’s important to remember that champagne has survived multiple world wars, pandemics, and economic depressions. The first sparkling wine was introduced in 1531 then went on to named champagne in 1662.
Champagne has withstood the test of time and will survive Coronavirus too.
READ MORE From Euro News.