Prosecco uncorks faster sales growth across Europe than champagne
Prosecco sales have bubbled up 25 per cent in the UK this year despite champagne's best efforts to keep up.
Champagne prices have fallen seven per cent since the European Union referendum in June, but its market value in the UK of €333m (£278m) is dwarfed by prosecco's value of €600m (£502m).
Across Europe, champagne still has a solid hold of the market with sales of €1.4bn (£1.1bn) compared with prosecco's €789m (£660m), but the Italian sparkling wine's popularity is shooting up this year, and Britain is leading the trend, research by IRI suggests.
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The UK and the US are the only countries that spend more on prosecco than champagne.
Prosecco uncorked a flood of 77m litres sold this year — 25 per cent more than champagne. That gave a nice boost to the wine's value, which was up 24 per cent, and volume, which increased 23 per cent.
Champagne's growth was a little more flat. The market value inched up 0.9 per cent, but volume fell 0.3 per cent.
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In a surprising twist, the only country in which champagne consumption decreased was France. The fizz fell 1.2 per cent there, but the home country remains the number one champagne market at €921m (£773m) — 66 per cent of all champagne sales measured in Europe.
The sparkling wine market, which includes champagne, prosecco, cava and others, is worth almost €4.6bn (£3.8bn) in sales in Europe.