Grower Champagne and Price

As I read my 27 December wine mailings I'm struck that you almost can't find an NV Brut under $40 the days. This leads me to a question. Is Grower Champagne or Artisnal Champagne a factor (large or small) in price increases over the last 10 years? If not, what is? The US dollar?

Hey Tom, I recently bought over 2 cases of NV Duval-Leroy Brut for $17.50 each so there are some decent deals on Champagne out there. I don't know if that one is considered an artisnal Champagne but your question may be very valid in that the small artisnal Champagnes (Pierre Peters/Vilmart etc.) raise the price of all Champagnes in general.

Jim,

Thanks. I guess my thinking is that if the total amount of acres in Champagne under vine hasn't changed much (or even if its grown by a small amount) in the last 10-15 years if you go from 250* Champagne houses to 1,000* Chmapagne houses then the price per bottle is probably going up due to dis economies of scale.

* numbers are purely made up to make a point.

I don't think there is anything like a fourfold increase in the number of growers who make their own wine, though there well may be a four-fold increase in the number of grower Champagnes available in a particular market.

The funny thing is that I would have called Champagne fairly stagnant as far as price increases on the NV level, though that's just my impression -I've not done any study. Seems to me 10 years ago entry level was $25-30, and that's about what I see these days ( I just looked and there are a half dozen or so at Wine Library).

[David M. Bueker]

There are two things that happened with Champagne prices in the last 5-7 years, and neither has anything to do with how many growers are producing their own wines.

1. Some (OK more than some) Champagne producers, mostly the bigger houses, "re-positioned" many of their wines as beverages of prestige by raising the prices. Laurent-Perrier was the worst culprit when the bumped the rosé by nearly 100% to change the image of the wine. Sadly it worked. They now sell more to foolish people than they did to smart people when the wine was $40. There are other examples, but that is the most egregious.

2. The dollar/euro issue cannot be understated. When a currency moves by 75% (think 2003 to 2008/2009 values) it causes seismic shifts in pricing.

The fact that Duval-Leroy is commonly available for under $30 (sometimes well under - see above), and some really good grower wines (e.g. Aubry) are in the low $30s is a bit of a miracle. Prices came down a bit this year due to the minor strengthening of the dollar, but a backlog of overpriced stocks, bought when the euro was at 1.60 has slowed the effect of lower prices.

Duval Leroy appears to make about 400,000 cases a year, so I wouldn't say artisanal.

The proportion of Champagne bottled by growers is still tiny relative to the Grands Marques* and other bottlers, and that being the case, the grower pricing won't affect overall pricing.

As David said, I think the fact that you can buy great grower Champagne for less than the price of eg Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label is a good thing.

*Theise said RM was 3% of the total Champagne market a year ago.

Hey Tom, I recently bought over 2 cases of NV Duval-Leroy Brut for $17.50 each so there are some decent deals on Champagne out there.

Jim,

That was the deal of the year, likely never to be repeated. By the time I could have gotten to Fort Wayne they were sold out. Hoosier hospitality in action. The D-L NV Brut is $35 retail near Indy when I can find it.

this discussion is a bit puzzling since i have noticed that the average grower champagne is cheaper than the big negociants. some of course are higher; but many if not most are lower. that said, this time of year the negociants often roll out their special deals. they have large importers with money to burn who want to ramp up sales. duval leroy seems particularly agile at this even in backward Michigan. in any event, there is a sameness to most negociant stuff that makes me want to buy the RM stuff most of the time. there are lots of grower champagnes in chicago and even MI under $40.

Tom,

also has a bit to do with where you live,....Massachusetts. Fortunately I don't really live there anymore.

I've gotten so much more champagne this year specifically because the prices were so incredible low, but the stores have all been not in MA. Duval Leroy I pretty much drink as my house wine now due to the prices and the bottles available in London.

Places like JJ Buckley, KL Wines, even Zachy's etc have had large sales in the sparkly stuff. I got quite a few Delamottes for well under $40 a bottle this year and there are many more that are frankly well under $30 that I've not taken advantage of.

All,

Thanks!!

I think the consensus is:

1. Some re positioning may move overall prices up,
2. currency impacts are driving up prices in the US,
3. where I live (MA.) has an impact.

It sounds like Grower Champagne is not a significant driver of recent (last 5 years) price increases.

One thought - are larger house increasing prices to distance themselves from the Grower Champagnes? Did Guigal raise prices when Grower Cote Rotie took off 10-15 years ago?

Thanks.

I just received a wine newsletter (Wine Cask in Somerville) with Duval Leroy NV Brut for $24.99. I guess I'll grab a couple.

Grande Marque Champagne houses are raising prices because the increased demand from emerging markets around the world supports it (and the mark-ups fall in line with the other luxury goods within their corporate portfolios.) Too bad that the quality doesn't jive.

As is the case with large-house Burgundy, I just don't care about Grande Marque Champagne. The art of blending a stock of reserve wines so that the finished wine tastes exactly the same every bottling is a valid one, it just doesn't stir anything within me.

Cheers,
Bill