November 29, 1999. Copyright 1999. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

CHAMPAGNE BUBBLE SET TO BURST

LONDON, November 29, Graphic News: IT WOULDNÕT be a celebration without champagne, or so the champagne producers would have us believe. But quick-buck price hikes of 30 to 50 percent are causing a frenzy in Paris, London, Milan and New York.

More than 80 percent of FranceÕs $3 billion champagne output sells in France, Britain, Italy, Germany and the United States.

Analysts predict millennium celebrations will push global champage consumption as high as 320 million bottles by yearÕs end, up from about 285 million bottles in 1998.

Exports to Britain Ð the worldÕs biggest market for French bubbly Ð have soared to a new high, according to industry analysts.

Britain imported 24.25 million bottles last year, an increase of almost nine percent on 1997 and millennium fever is boosting champagne sales further.

British wine warehouse retailer Majestic Wines Plc has reported a surprise 60 percent surge in its champagne sales in November. Majestic, which has 87 wine warehouses, is selling around 25,000 bottles of champagne a week.

But with the surge in demand has come price hikes, with some of the champagne houses breaking ranks with the champagne producers' professional body, Le Comite Inter Professionnel du Vin de Champagne, which warned champagne producers not to increase prices by more than about 5 percent.

While two of FranceÕs largest champagne houses Ð Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin and Mo‘t & Chandon Ð have held their prices, others appear to have cashed in or prices have been distorted by speculators.

Americans Ð who last year enjoyed 17 million bottles of bubbly Ð are facing the highest hikes.

New Yorkers have seen TaittingerÕs Comtes de Champagne 1993 soar from $89 (£55) to $150 (£93), while it can still be bought for less than $97 (£60) in London.

Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs costs $135 (£84) as opposed to $74 (£46) in Britain, and a Dom Perignon 1992 will set you back $125 (£77) as opposed to $83 (£52) in the UK.

Expensive millennium champagnes dressed in everything from leather corsets to anoraks are helping spread the idea of a millennium champagne rip-off.

Piper-Heidsieck is charging $95 (£59) for a bottle of bubbly dressed in a tightly-laced red bustier created by fashion guru Jean Paul Gaultier. Lanson is marketing its Nobele Cuvee in a chicken wire outfit by fellow designer Paco Rabanne, on sale for about $495 (£307). Without the wire, Nobele Cuvee costs about $85 (£53).

Pommery has donned a Christian Dior anorak and is a millennium snip at $293 (£182).

Roederer has devoted its entire 1990 cuvee to 2,000 methuselahs of end-of-century Cristal. A methuselah is a giant bottle holding six litres of bubbly, or eight regular-sized bottles.

In Italy methuselahs of Cristal have gone on sale for more than $7,700 (£4,790), four times its original price.

ÒAlthough these millennium bottles represent a small proportion of sales, they help to spread the idea that champagne growers are cashing in,Ó says Daniel Lorson, spokesperson for the champagne producersÕ professional body.

Monsieur Lorson has good reason to worry. Champagne sales are bound to drop at the beginning of 2000 and could plummet sharply if drinkers come to the conclusion they have been ripped off over the millennium.

/ENDS
Sources: Reuters, Associated Press, The Times, Morrell and Company (New York), Nicolas, Majestic (London)