HAS THE CHAMPAGNE PRICE BUBBLE BURST?
The writing is on the chalk cellar wall. Champagne vineyard prices are up more than five-fold in 25 years. Grape prices are up 80% in 15 years. The region boasts the highest cost of production in the wine world. Yet the price of a bottle of Champagne has risen just 13% in the past decade. Can Champagne continue to churn out the most affordable wines of the fine wine world?
Escalating costs
Did you know that Champagne pays its growers the highest grape price in the world, averaging more than €7 per kilogram, and more than €8 in top grands crus, and rising annually, more than 80% up on 15 years ago?
In the dismal 2017 harvest, Champagne’s largest player, LVMH – maker of Mercier, Moët & Chandon, Ruinart, Veuve Clicquot, Dom Pérignon and Krug – shocked everyone by offering its growers a premium of 6%-7% on the price of grapes, and in some crus as much as 15%, inflating prices across the region.
Even the big
