Champagne houses have been grappling with volatile weather conditions for some years, and are carefully considering how best to mitigate the effects in the vineyard and the cellar. 

Champagne exports to the US in 2023 dropped 20% on the previous year to around 27m bottles according to Comité Champagne.

Champagne house Maison Mumm has announced Yann Munier as its new cellar master from 8 April 2024.

Ferrari Trento has announced that Cyril Brun has joined the Italian sparkling wine brand located in Trentino, Italy, as cellar master.

The Comité Champagne has unveiled the sector’s plan for the next decade, defining a global trajectory to face the challenges of the next 10 years. 

A select band continues to dominate this category, where brand recognition is the all-important factor.

Champagne growers and houses met in Epernay within the Comité Champagne to agree on the circumstances of the next harvest and on strategic directions for the sector.

Hollywood star and activist Leonardo DiCaprio has acquired an equity stake in Remy Cointreau’s Champagne Telmont for an undisclosed fee.

There wasn’t a huge amount to celebrate last year, but it doesn’t take much of an occasion for champagne corks to fly in the world’s best bars – almost 90% of our bars stock the French sparkler. Three-quarters have two champers and two-thirds have three or more.

A new law in Russia ordering French champagne to be labelled sparkling wine has caused unrest among producers.

According to the Champagne Bureau USA, the exports of champagne to the US fell almost 19% in 2020 year-on-year.

Terlato Wine Group has announced an exclusive sales and marketing agreement with Champagne Lanson to become effective April 1, 2021.

Louis Roederer has been crowned The World’s Most Admired Champagne Brand for the second year in a row.

UK retailers enjoyed soaring sales of Champagne and sparkling wine as the country basked in warm weather during the four weeks to September 5.

The Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG produced and sold a record 92 million bottles in 2019 after enjoying a large harvest the previous year.

Champagne Gosset has launched a non-vintage cuvee that has benefited from more than 12 years of ageing on the lees.

Drinks International has named Louis Roederer as the World’s Most Admired Champagne Brand in 2020, a magazine which ranks champagne brands from 1-30 based on the votes of the world's top wine experts.

Champagne is a category in which brand reputation has a key role. Its expense clearly plays a part in consumers' brand loyalty - creating a reluctance to experiment with lesser-known brands as they might in the craft-spun worlds of beer and gin, for example.

A GlobalData representative has claimed the threat of 100% US tariffs on champagne could be critical to the exports of powerful champagne houses.

Champagne has been going through a period of fundamental change over the past couple of years.

With the term ‘sparkling’ gaining credence in wines from England, Canada and Spain, champagne can’t afford to rest on its laurels. Jamie Goode reports

The much vaunted 2008 vintage of Dom Pérignon was launched earlier this month at a spectacular event in Hautvillers, appropriately close by the cellar in the vineyard – ‘Cave Thomas’ -- where Dom Pérignon himself made his wines.

Champagne Pommery has a new wine maker to oversee its September harvest this year. Clément Pierlot, follows in the footsteps of Thierry Gasco, who is now directing Pommery’s new sparkling wine adventures in California, England and the South of France.

Two leading figures in the UK wine trade are hoping that the UK leaving the European Union could bring back the imperial pint for champagne.

Champagne Bollinger has discovered some ‘reserve wines’ that date back to the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Speaking ahead of its new marketing campaign, Enchanting life, Olivier Legrand has told Drinks International the world's third largest champagne brand sacrificed sales in the short term to protect its future.

Terry Kandylis from London’s 67 Pall Mall is the 2016 Moët UK Sommelier of the Year.

The Champagne Academy has celebrated its 60th anniversary and launched the 2016 programme of its annual trip to Champagne next month (June).

Here is the pick of the launches from last month, as featured in Drinks International Magazine April edition.

Total champagne shipments in 2015 are up 1.7% on 2014, to 312,531,444, bottles, the highest volume figure recorded since 2011, according to the CIVC (Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne).

Tourist figures in Champagne are up 15% on last year as a result of the ‘UNESCO World Heritage effect’, according to the president of the Associations Paysages du Champagne. 

Armand de Brignac Champagne has announced that Bernadette Knight is its new chief marketing officer.

McKinley Vintners has become UK Agent for Champagne Janisson et Fils.

The champagne house Krug has announced a two-day tasting experience– including one rare bottle of Krug Private Cuvée 1915 – to be auctioned as one lot at Sotheby’s New York on September 25.

Champagne Pol Roger has arranged a cricket match between Champagne and  English sparkling wine.

Champagne Jacquart has appointed Diane Gonzalez as its new UK business development manager.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has decided to include the Champagne slopes, houses and cellars on its world heritage list.

The UK alcohol market has returned to growth following years of continuous decline, according to the latest WSTA market report. 

52% of prosecco drinkers in the UK regard the Italian fizz as ‘very good value for money’, more than twice the figure for champagne, according to a new report from Wine Intelligence.

The champagne category needs to claw back its premium status to survive this competitive market. Giles Fallowfield reports

Champagne Deutz is the sponsor of the Court of Master Sommeliers for the next three years.

As demand for sparkling wine shows no signs of abating, the New World is taking its chances and offering quality like never before, as Jamie Goode reports

The House of Ruinart says the deadline for applications for its Ateliers Ruinart programme 2015 has been extended to Friday January 23.

Moët Hennessy Wines and Spirits chairman and CEO, Christophe Navarre, has announced the appointment of Stéphane Voyer, as senior vice president human resources.

A methuselah of Pol Roger Blanc de Blancs 2004 - estimated at £5,000-£10,000 - is to be auctioned at Bonhams, London on September 11, in aid of the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation. 

The Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships has announced its medal results of the 2014 competition.

Champagne house Krug has released of a new vintage of its rare single vineyard cuvée, the Krug Clos du Mesnil 2003.

The Academy of Food & Wine Service (AFWS) has announced the names of the sommeliers going through to the semi-finals of the Moët UK Sommelier of the Year 2014 following the regional finals held earlier this week in Bristol, two London venues and Stafford.

The Fat Duck’s Loic Avril has been named Chaîne des Rôtisseurs 2013 International Young Sommelier of the Year.