Champagne corks may have been popped over the weekend in honour of Ireland’s grand slam in the Six Nations rugby, but our thirst for fancy bubbles remains subdued – even as economic growth has recovered.
Last year 474,853 bottles of champagne were exported to Ireland, down by 10 per cent on 2016, at a total value of €8.5 million, according to the French trade association Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne. This makes Ireland the region's 30th-largest export market.
It’s a far cry from the heady years of the Celtic Tiger; in 2007 we imported more than a million bottles of Taittinger, Veuve Clicquot, Moët & Chandon and other brands – about one bottle for every three and a half adults. But it’s up on the years of austerity.
The last time we won the rugby grand slam coincided with the height of the recession and the nadir of our champagne drinking. Back in 2009 our economy declined by 4.6 per cent, and as the recession bit it sapped our appetite for bubbles. Just 337,323 bottles were sold that year, down by more than 66 per cent on the boom-year highs.
This change in our drinking habits meant that, in 2012, the Central Statistics Office took champagne out of the basket of goods it uses to calculate the consumer price index, a measure of inflation. Our appetite now hovers at about 500,000 bottles a year, and champagne is back in the index, along with a separate category for other sparkling wines. Indeed, our love for cheaper varieties of sparkling wine, such as prosecco and cava, may be stealing business away from champagne suppliers.
The figures also show a steady rise in the cost per bottle of champagne imported, up from €14.60 in 2000 to €17.90 in 2017. The import cost is only a fraction of what we end up paying; much of the additional cost is down to duties. Sparkling wines and champagne attract almost double excise rate of still wines, at about €9.45 a bottle – although Lidl has been known to sell cut-price champagne at just €12.49 a bottle.
The new French figures also show that total global exports of champagne reached a record €4.9 billion last year, up by 3.5 per cent on the year. The United Kingdom, at 27.8 million bottles, was the biggest market for champagne, followed by the United States, at 23.1 million, and Japan, at 12.9 million.
