Sparkling wine has changed its priorities – Kommersant FM

Premium sparkling wine is losing its audience. Since the beginning of the year, demand for Moet Hennessy, Dom Perignon and Krug has fallen by 3%. LVMH announced this, Bloomberg writes. During the pandemic, the manufacturer, on the contrary, recorded an increase in interest. For example, in the spring of 2021, the company’s revenue increased by more than a third – then people bought more expensive drinks to drink at home. Moet Hennessy CEO Philippe Schaus attributes the current decline to the falling effect of the pandemic and rising inflation in the world. Official deliveries of LVMH group brands to Russia have been stopped. However, Moet was included in the parallel import list.

What sparkling wine do restaurants currently offer? Viktor Kuznetsov, sales director and partner of the wine wholesale company Lion Wine, notes that alcohol like Moet Hennessy champagne has long begun to disappear from wine lists in Moscow:

“About five years ago there was some kind of revolution, and class A restaurants reoriented themselves. Sparkling wines are represented by many houses, and, on the contrary, it was bad manners to offer just big brands only for some budgetary funds and due to separate agreements. Any premium establishment will offer up to 20 positions of sparkling wines, but these will not be well-known brands, but so-called recoltants – small family wineries that grow grapes on their 10 hectares.

This is not a mass product, there is no brand money there. Most of them continued to work with Russia. The only thing that will change now is, of course, the course. The duty has changed, and now the market will change. That is, champagne will simply become unavailable. And the wine list will simply shift to analogues produced using the traditional method. These are cremant from different places in France, Italian high brands with a traditional production method, for example, franciacorta.”

Co-owner of the Sangre Fresca restaurant, Yan Cherepanov, notes that in Moscow restaurants and bars there is growing interest in cocktail menus and drinks from previously unpopular countries:

“Guests’ interest in alcohol is growing. People began to understand. Sparkling wine continues to be drunk in expensive restaurants. Of course, this cannot be avoided, because this drink is always associated with the holiday. Over the past year, demand for Mexico has probably been growing. And, accordingly, people began to consume more tequila and mezcal.

Restaurants and bars in Moscow now have a good cocktail menu; it has ceased to be something mediocre or an addition.

This is already an independent menu with gastronomy in these cocktails. That being said, there is, of course, a huge demand for Aperol Spritz, which just flows in the summer. The level of interest in bars and restaurants is increasing, guests are trying to try a new cocktail, new alcohol, and establishments are betting on this and building a business with a cocktail component.”

Exports of Italian wines to Russia increased by a third in the first quarter of the year, the Federvini association reported. In the first three months of the year, Italy supplied almost 12 million liters of wine, with a total value of about €34 million.

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Daria Fomenko