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Challenging the Champagne market

Round Table in partnership with Champagne Piaff

PANELLISTS

David Archibald, sales director, Cachet Wine

Leonardo Barlondi, head sommelier, The Dorchester

Laura Head, director of business development, Champagne Piaff

Matthew Hennings, MD, Hennings Wine

Luma Monteiro, marketing manager, Davy’s Wine Merchants

Andrew Catchpole, moderator and editor, Harpers Wine & Spirit

Have Champagne occasions evolved in line with wine more generally, towards more accessible, relaxed and ‘consumer-forward’ experiences?

David Archibald: Five to 10 years ago, a Champagne dinner would only take place at the highest end of restaurants, whereas now good cooks are partnering dishes with Champagne throughout the whole meal, so that is one change.

Matthew Hennings: Certainly we see more of a sense of place, with single varietals, single village wines, single vineyard wines, which feeds into the gastronomic side.

And I think the single biggest thing that has probably changed is the way people feel about where Champagne can fit into a meal. A lot more people are more interested in sparkling wine in general, from Prosecco up, and those with disposable income, as people get older, they do drink Champagne… and it’s changed, from not mattering what the Champagne is to [taking an interest]. It is also drunk more casually now.

Luma Monteiro: Covid changed the perception of how you drink Champagne more than ever, because before it was definitely seen as a luxury, or for celebrations, or just Christmas. And during Covid you saw this huge spike in sparkling wine categories, and people were like, “You know what?, it’s not just for one moment of celebration – I’m going to do that on a daily basis.” And this opened the market for people that had never enjoyed Champagne before. They had the money to spend, the money to try, because everyone was at home with nothing else to do. And after that, people started buying it for a normal meal at home. The perception that it was just for celebration changed, it became more of a day-to-day thing.

Leonardo Barlondi: Also, I think the message passing from the Champagne houses is that you can have a full tasting menu with different styles, but as well you can have a single bottle of Champagne through your whole meal, with different foods, which you cannot really do with a full-body red wine or a light white wine.

Laura Head: It’s actually adopting how the French drink Champagne: they will have a Champagne throughout the whole meal. And I think the whole way we look at modern luxury has changed; with Covid people were experimenting more at home, they were cooking things that they’d never cooked before. They were going to Michelin-starred restaurants and getting home-delivery kits to create those meals, so then they wanted wines and Champagnes to match, to elevate their home-dining experiences. And that mindset followed through when they went back to restaurants. So that mindset has definitely changed.

With the rise in the sparkling category overall, consumers are now much happier to try different styles – grower Champagnes, Crémant, Cava, Prosecco, etc. Can this more flexible engagement with sparkling work in favour of newer and different-style Champagne brands?

MH: Crémants and better-quality fizz outside of Champagne are definitely gaining traction. The English fizz market has done a very good job of trying to compare Champagne to English fizz, with great wine tastings to sit it alongside. But in reality, to me anyway, they are completely different. So it is a vehicle moving through, people spending a bit more money from Prosecco upwards, to Cava, to Crémant, to English fizz and to Champagne, which is in the same price bracket as English fizz. We are definitely seeing this more [in retail], but in the on-trade we sell a lot more Champagne than English sparkling.

LM: The Champagne drinker might drink a Franciacorta, or English sparkling, or something more premium from America… they are more willing to go to the same category of premium. But, if you are a Prosecco drinker, you might bump up and go to Champagne when you see it by the glass. And I think by the glass is the most important thing, because not many people are willing to buy a bottle of Champagne. By the glass, they might take the risk and move up to Champagne.

LH: I feel that, unless the wine shop is very independent, a specialist wine shop with very good staff who are going to help and educate, people won’t take a risk away from a brand that they know with Champagne. And the biggest thing is going to a dinner party, and people want them to know what they’ve spent, so they go for a big brand.

DA: With the grower Champagnes, price is an obvious factor in that it bridges the gap from, say, Prosecco and Cava to the grandes marques. And there’s a willingness among consumers to experiment a lot more. And maybe they’ve been turned off by the deep discounting the grandes marques do in supermarkets and petrol stations, and so on. That may have turned some consumers away. So I certainly think there’s a willingness to experiment with grower Champagnes – people are realising the quality.

LH: We managed to pick up quite a few accounts just after Covid, because obviously there was a worldwide shortage of Champagne. And we actually found, with some of the independents, that the huge brands weren’t giving them enough love.

DA: In terms of the love from the grandes marques, I think it has waned gradually over the past 10-15, years, and there isn’t a lot of love left.

LB: It’s part of our job to introduce smaller producers, but what I also like from growers is the packaging, which is very personal, and the wines are also very interesting. A game-changer has been the sparkling Coravin, because this really allows us to introduce new things to the guests. If somebody doesn’t want to drink the whole bottle, we can offer a selection of 10 Champagnes.

What are the challenges for a new Champagne looking to break into the market and also engage with a younger audience?

DA: For the Champagne house, keeping that differential [from other sparkling wines] is hugely important. It needs to retain that aspirational, high value, higher-end perception. You need that relationship, but then it’s equally important to filter that through, [with] things like the visits to the vineyards, the customer visits, the point of sale. And it’s an area where the smaller houses don’t do as well as the grandes marques, for obvious reasons. But the biggest hurdle is simply finding distribution.

MH: I was thinking about this yesterday, about the whole premium [question], and I started to think about it outside of Champagne, such as with jeans and other premium items. Why do people now spend £300 on a pair of jeans? How does a new premium clothes brand become more relevant? Well, it becomes more relevant by having a very clear message. And if they want to appeal to younger consumers, it probably is about sustainability, transparency, business, decor, fairness for everyone. And I’m sure that will become more of a thing with Champagne, because it is finite. It needs a strong message behind it, about what they’re trying to do, their principles.

LH: It’s a really interesting point about the younger generation. We’ve done a lot of work around that, because eventually that’s going to be our next generation of Champagne drinkers. The way they look at how they approach luxury has changed completely. It’s not now all about huge brands across their chests, but it’s about what you can create as an experience and the ethics behind it. So, it will be all the points that you made about jeans, what’s behind the brand and what they stand for, but also, by adopting that brand and becoming part of that community, how does that enhance their lifestyle and what they can then show on social media? Our whole ethos is about making life ‘pop’. And I don’t think it matters whether you’re 24 or 88, you can still make life pop. Especially for some of our consumers, there are older generations that are all still about living life to the fullest and wanting to keep up with the trends.

MH: For independent business, in a nutshell, it’s important for us to have ‘non-brands’, it’s all about relationships with our suppliers, relationships with our customers. And Champagne fits within that and that sort of loyalty; we build them, they understand what our needs are. There’s a lot of disquiet at the moment in the independent sector with some of the big houses, and [independent merchants] have probably been a bit too wed to some of them, but those Champagne houses are now realising that they need the independents, rather than the other way around.

DA: The majority of indies are family owned, by definition, and the majority of the smaller Champagne houses are family owned, and often multi-generational businesses. And I think the marriage between those two things is very, very important, along with exclusivity.

MH: Innovation is one area we’ve spoken about. We’ve seen village-specific wines, Bollinger PN and other people doing just Pinot Noir, or batch-specific, vintage-specific wines; and that’s really interesting, that’s growing, and whether these are gastronomic [wines] or not people want to try them, so that’s quite exciting.

LB: It’s important for Champagnes to keep their own identity, but it’s good to have creativity and discover new styles, as well as new label designs and maybe different formats, even 500ml bottle. It’s always important to keep updated, to evolve – it’s important to have tradition, but you cannot stick on tradition.

THE TASTING

CHAMPAGNE PIAFF BRUT NV

Described as “a crowd pleaser”, this is a fresh, easy-going, eminently drinkable style of NV.

CHAMPAGNE PIAFF ROSÉ

A clear bottle reveals the fuller hue of this strawberry-ish and well-balanced palate-pleaser.

CHAMPAGNE PIAFF BLANC DE BLANCS

Soft and rich, with satisfying brioche and almost nutty undertones, plus a thread of minerally structure.

• Sparkling Wine
• sparkling sales
• Champagne market
• Champagne Piaff
• modern consumer