Nolte: Champagne Sales Drop 15%, Industry Blames World Malaise

Champagne sales dropped this year and French industry executives believe the world is suffering through a malaise with fewer things to celebrate.

“LVMH is having Champagne problems,” reports Business Insider. “Chief financial officer Jean-Jacques Guiony thinks it could come from fewer celebrations for people to pop the bottle.”

Although sparkling wine sales increased by 16 percent, year-over-year Champagne sales dropped by 15 percent during the first two quarters of 2024.

“Champagne is quite linked with celebration, happiness, et cetera,” LVMH CFO said on an earnings call. “Maybe the current global situation, be it geopolitical or macroeconomic, does not lead people to cheer up and to open bottles of Champagne. I don’t really know.”

LVMH is the world’s biggest Champagne producer, per Business Insider, and behind such brands as Dom Pérignon, Krug, Ruinart, Veuve Clicquot, and Mercier.

“During the first half of this year, Champagne shipments decreased by 15.2% compared to 2023,” the report adds. This drop is “attributed to economic uncertainty and inflation affecting consumer spending, said David Chatillon, chairman of the Champagne Houses lobby.”

Nothing about this is very surprising.

We’re a civilization dealing with crippling inflation, two major wars, a corporate media that won’t stop lying to us, and too many governments more interested in globalization than they are in looking out for their own countries and citizens. Add in a growing violent crime wave. Add in the lunacy of the West importing millions and millions of unvetted third worlders. Plus, we’re all addicted to our screens.

Popping a cork is a group thing. Fewer and fewer people are into group things. Even within groups, everyone’s staring at their phone.

Yes, I’m a bit of a hypocrite. I don’t like groups and I don’t like Champagne, but I also don’t like seeing our civilization turn inward like it has. A healthy civilization is one full of carefree people out partying and celebrating and talking about anything but politics.

I’m pretty sure America peaked in the seventies, eighties, and early nineties. I don’t relish getting older, but I’m sure glad I lived through those decades. Younger people have no idea how good life was in America before cable news, the Internet, and helicopter parents.

The Bad News Bears and riding bikes in the seventies. Footloose, Def Leppard, and beer blasts in the eighties. Zero deficits and low gas prices in the nineties.

John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.