Australia is in the midst of a champagne shortage and there is no chance of summer discounts or bulk deals this year, according to local importers.
Key points:
- Frosts and pandemic-related production cuts have slashed champagne production
- Australian importers and retailers have restricted sales of famous French brands
- Local sparkling wine makers hope higher prices for imported product boosts their sales
Australians are consistently among the top ten per capita consumers of champagne, and just as the country heads into its peak drinking season, local sparkling wine producers are ready to pounce on a thirsty market.
They are keen to assure drinkers their fizz is just as good as the imported product.
Like many Australian cold climate wineries, Yering Station in Victoria’s Yarra Valley uses the “méthode champenoise”, or traditional method of making sparkling wine, the only permitted process for making champagne.
Champagne problems
Last, year the Comité Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne (CIVC), a committee that determines how much champagne is produced each year, slashed production as the world grappled with lockdowns.
It declared the maximum permitted grape yield at 8,000 kilograms per hectare — producing nearly 230 million bottles — down from the 10,000kg/ha declared in 2019.
Then just as the rest of the world started to open up, severe frosts wiped off anywhere between 30-40 per cent of the 2021 vintage, leaving the entire world short on fizz.
“[The CIVC] thought they were doing the right thing. It turns out if they had just let things go and let that bumper crop of 2020 come through it would have been enough champagne for everyone”, said United Cellars senior buyer Mark Faber.
Full price fizz
Dan Murphy’s, Liquorland, and First Choice Liquor have restricted sales of famous brands like Möet, Louis Roederer, Mumm, and Pol Roger, among others.
Endeavour Group, which owns Dan Murphy’s, said the stock limit of 12 bottles per person on certain brands “is to ensure all our customers have access to these champagnes all the way throughout the festive season”.
“There are more than 200 different champagnes to choose from in Dan Murphy’s stores and there will be promotions on champagne lines that we have sufficient stock of in the lead up to Christmas,” an Endeavour Group spokeswoman said.
Emperor Champagne CEO Kyla Kirkpatrick said there was going to be some shortages, particularly of well known brands.
Best in the world
Australian sparkling winemakers know they still have to work to convince more Australians their local bubbles are just as good as champagne.
Accolade Wines, which owns Grant Burge, Yarraburn, Croser, and Bay of Fires among many others in Australia, New Zealand, and around the world, is the ultimate owner of a sparkling label that produced the best sparkling wine in the world in 2020.
Decanter Magazine’s 2020 tasting bestowed that honour on Tasmania’s House of Arras.
“I think the Australian consumer is a duel-drinker, so they’ll drink champagne but they’ll also drink Australian — or specifically Tasmanian — sparkling,” said Accolade CEO Robert Foye.
“They can get equal quality on the Australian and Tasmanian side.”
But the champagne diehards are not as easily convinced.
Ms Kirkpatrick and Mr Faber both hosted events recently entertaining small, but high-paying audiences of champagne fans obsessed with the history of the houses that produce it, the region, and culture surrounding champagne.
Insatiable thirst
As global sales of champagne plummeted in 2020, Australia imported 10 per cent more than it did in 2019.
“This trend has happened before. There is a correlation which is really quite interesting between a global economic crisis and an increase in champagne sales,” Ms Kirkpatrick said.
“Is this a classic exacerbation of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer?
And it is not just champagne.
“Caviar sales were through the roof. My neighbour is [with] Watches of Switzerland and his sales were through the roof.
“So maybe people aren’t taking luxury holidays, they might not be buying that car, but they certainly are trading up to more expensive champagnes.”