Champagne Shipments to U.S. Increase for Sixth Consecutive Year

The U.S. Champagne Bureau announced this week that 23,714,793 bottles of Champagne shipped to America in 2018 — an increase of 2.7% from 2017.

This marks the sixth consecutive year of growth in Champagne shipments to the U.S. Helping drive this growth is the expansion of sales from primarily the holiday season to now year round.

The value of these shipments in 2018 reached more than $652 million in 2018, the highest of any country outside of France.

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“American consumers, particularly younger consumers, are showing an increased interest in quality and unique products, and their wine is no exception,” says Jennifer Hall, director of the Champagne Bureau, USA. “Champagne is a great wine for these consumers because it comes from a special place and has unique characteristics that tell the story of where it is grown.”

The U.S. is the second largest export market for Champagne in the world (behind the United Kingdom) and largest outside of Europe in terms of volume. At the same time, the U.S. is the number one export market in terms of the total value of the Champagne shipments that crossed its borders.

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Worldwide, Champagne shipments totaled 301.9 million bottles with a record value of more than $5.5 billion, the bureau reported.

“Today, there are more wines of Champagne in the U.S. market,” says Hall. “Understanding its origins is becoming an increasingly important factor for consumers, providing them with critical information about a wine’s characteristics. We owe it to American wine drinkers to make it easy to identify Champagne.”

In most of the world, the Champagne name is reserved for wines produced only from grapes grown under strict regulations in Champagne, France. However, the U.S. is one of few countries that permits the name on labels of wines that do not originate in Champagne.

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