Sparkling wines, easier on the budget than Champagne

A bottle of Champagne (L) stands next a bottle of Prosecco in a wine shop in the Valdobbiadene valley, northern Italy, July 4, 2008.

Credit: Reuters/Manuel Silvestri

By Leslie Gevirtz

NEW YORK | Thu Dec 27, 2012 10:10am EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Krug Champagne, which sold at auction for nearly $5,000 a bottle earlier this month, may be a bit too pricey for many holiday budgets, but wine experts say there are more affordable alternatives on offer.

Sparkling wines, from France, Spain, Germany and the United States, are a good substitute for Champagne and won't break the budget.

"Prosecco is definitely an alternative, but it must be the real thing," said Ed McCarthy, author of "Champagne for Dummies."

McCarthy suggested buying Prosecco made in the original Italian region of Valdobbiadene-Conegliano, about a 90-minute drive northwest of Venice, where the grape is grown. A bottle from the area sells for $10-$20.

Most non-vintage Champagnes cost about $40 a bottle or more in shops in New York and London. The prestige "tete de cuvee" Champagnes, range from $120 to $300 or more a bottle, depending on the producer and vintage.

Krug's top of the line Clos du Mesnil Champagne, made from the Chardonnay grapes of a single vineyard, is priced at $850 to $900 a bottle, even at the Chateau's cellar door, according to McCarthy. Sotheby's sold a case of 12 bottles of the 1990 vintage for $58,188 on December 1.

For wines from France's Loire region, he suggested bottles from Gratien & Meyer, who have been producing sparkling wines for more than a century. Their Brut Saumur Anjou averages about $17 a bottle.

He also praised Bouvet-Ladubay, another Loire producer, whose wines average about $13 a bottle.

Spanish Cavas are another alternative to sparkling wine.

"They are also in the same price range as Prosecco and maybe even $2 or $3 less," McCarthy said, adding that Codorniu or Juve y Camps would be good choices.

California sparkling wines, made by some of France's top Champagne houses, can also be a good substitute for Champagne.

"My favorite is Roederer Estate," said McCarthy. "It's totally reliable." It sells for $18-$22 a bottle in the United States and at about $30 in the Britain and Germany.

British wine critic and author Stuart Pigott casts his vote for Sekt, the German sparkling wine. His favorite is Van Volxem 1900 Riesling Brut Sekt, made in Mosel.

"It is a rich and complex sparkling wine that is less creamy and less acidic than Champagne," he said about the wine that is available in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland for about $34 a bottle.

But a man who buys millions of dollars of sparkling wine each year thinks most people really would prefer something sweeter to drink.

Guido Battipaglia, the sparkling wine buyer for New York's Gotham Wines & Liquors, said that instead of Champagnes most people would prefer Cantine Riondo Pink Prosecco, which costs less than $10 a bottle in the United States and Germany.

"There's a lot of fruit in it," said Battipaglia, who also likes the French rose from Marquis de la Tour, which can be found for less than $10.

If Champagne is a must, McCarthy recommended Nicolas Feuillatte, which costs about $25 a bottle. For slightly more money, $40 a bottle, Charles Heidsieck would be his choice.

"The price is not high for the quality," he said.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Doina Chiacu)

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Top-end US, Asian tipplers rescue champagne sales

1 of 2. Wine merchant Gerard Mettler poses with various sizes of Champagne bottles in front of his wine shop in Paris December 21, 2012. Depressed by weak economies and the lingering shadow of a sovereign debt crisis, Europeans are struggling to find good reasons to crack open the bubbly. The European gloom means that after two years of increases, producers will dispatch about 9 million fewer bottles of champagne worldwide in 2012, a 3 percent drop to around 314 million, industry estimates gathered by Reuters showed.

Credit: Reuters/Charles Platiau

By Pascale Denis

PARIS | Fri Dec 21, 2012 10:56am EST

PARIS (Reuters) - Depressed by weak economies and the lingering shadow of a sovereign debt crisis, Europeans are struggling to find good reasons to crack open the bubbly.

The European gloom means that after two years of increases, producers will dispatch about 9 million fewer bottles of champagne worldwide in 2012, a 3 percent drop to around 314 million, industry estimates gathered by Reuters showed.

But more expensive tastes in export markets such as Japan, the United States and China mean champagne revenue as a whole will likely match or even pip the 4.1 billion euros ($5.4 billion) achieved last year.

"Despite the drop in volumes, champagne will still have one of the three or four best performances in history," said Bruno Paillard, chief executive of Lanson BCC, the world's second-biggest champagne group.

The market is dominated by luxury group LVMH, which owns the Dom Perignon, Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Ruinart and Krug brands. Specialist champagne-makers also include Laurent Perrier, Vranken and drinks group Pernod Ricard's Mumm and Perrier-Jouet brands.

Sales of champagne - which by definition can only be produced in the northern French region of the same name - peaked at 339 million bottles in 2007 for record industry revenue of 4.5 billion euros.

In France, the top sales market for champagne accounting for 52 percent of volumes, demand was down 5 percent by October with no sign of the trend improving.

"This year has been tough, with a fraught economic situation in France and Europe," said Thibaut Le Mailloux, spokesman for the Comite Interprofessionel des Vins de Champagne (CIVC) trade association, of the stagnant economy across most of the zone.

The British market, the world's biggest importer of champagne with 10 percent of total exports, remains very difficult and competitive after seeing a drop of 3 percent in 2011, industry executives said.

Despite the Diamond Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth and the Olympic Games in London, champagne sales volumes were down 7 percent at the end of October in Britain.

The overall drop in Europe 10 months into the year was 6 percent. The CIVC is due to publish detailed statistics for 2012 in February.

"Consumption remains bad in Europe, with a significant slowdown in demand, particularly in France," said Etienne Auriau, finance head at Laurent Perrier.

UPMARKET BOTTLES

In contrast, champagne exports to countries outside the European Union were up 5 percent as of October, boosted by demand in the United States, which in 2011 took 35 million bottles, and Japan, which took 7.9 million.

Russia has remained dynamic, while Chinese demand is expected to double this year to about 2 million bottles.

"The (Chinese) market is still in its infancy, but it is capable of evolving very quickly," Laurent Perrier's Auriau said of a market which this year became one of the top-ten export destinations for champagne ahead of Sweden and behind Spain.

Consumers in markets outside Europe are particularly attracted to rose champagnes, special vintages and bottles containing grapes from a single harvest, as opposed to normal "brut" champagnes that contain a mixture of years.

"Upmarket bottles are selling better outside the European Union," the CIVC spokesman said. "The positive trend in new markets is favorable in terms of value."

Still, the diverging trend between Europe and countries such as the U.S., Japan and China, is creating a two-track industry contrasting independent producers that sell almost all their champagne in France with big groups with large distribution networks that can tap into growing markets further afield.

"Champagne is two-speed: the houses with a strong image, highly exposed to exports, are doing well," said one industry insider. "The others are having to fight."

(Writing by James Regan; Editing by Mark John)

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