CHAMPAGNE ANNUAL REPORT

High quality and stylistic diversity are driving the growth of the world's premier bubbly

- ALISON NAPJUS

The market for Champagne in the United States has never been more exciting. Consumer demand is at an all-time high. Following a dip in 2020 due to COVID-19, exports of Champagne to the U.S. skyrocketed in 2021, up 33% compared with 2019, according to the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC), Champagne's governing body. Case depletions in the U.S. peaked at 1.89 million cases by the end of 2021, securing the country's place as the number one export market for Champagne.

The region's producers are answering the frenzy with both quality and innovation. The past decade has seen a largely outstanding string of growing seasons on which Champagne's winemakers based their vintage-dated and non-vintage bottlings, and many producers are also showcasing new offerings beyond their established labels, as a way to explore specific terroirs and/or the intricacies of Champagne's complex production process.

Since my previous report ("Bountiful Bubbly," Dec.15, 2021), I've reviewed more than 200 new releases in blind tastings at our New York office. Although the demand for Champagne means that additional producers continue to appear on U.S. shelves for the first time, availability is typically limited for these labels and therefore my tastings remain focused on the bottlings that form the core of the marketplace.

This group is dominated by non-vintage examples, the most widely available bottlings in the U.S., with both well-priced, introductory versions and tête de cuvée labels with extending aging. About a third of my tastings this year were vintage Champagnes, with new releases of 15 different vintages, from 2018 all the way back to 2004. This range displays not only the ageability of Champagne but also the complexity wrought from lees aging, when the bottles are aged under perfect conditions by the winery.