Jean-Jacques Guiony, LVMH’s chief financial officer, blames the drop on a “severe demand issue in champagne,” a beverage typically “linked with celebration, happiness, et cetera.” LVMH’s champagne brands include Veuve Clicquot, Dom Pérignon, Mercier, Krug, and Moët & Chandon.
“Maybe the current global situation, be it geopolitical or macroeconomic, doesn’t lead people to cheer up and open bottles of champagne,” Guiony said on the company’s earnings call this week. “I don’t really know. The matter of fact is, is that our volumes are down double digit.” Guiony noted that the whole industry is under “severe pressure, particularly in Europe,” as consumers grapple with rising costs of consumer goods.
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Renée Zavislak, a California-based certified therapist who works with clients on their alcohol consumption, also says people are too sad to buy champagne—but for a slightly different reason. The root cause of the drop, she says, could be people realizing alcohol consumption only makes negative feelings linked to “political instability and environmental disasters” even worse.
“People have finally realized that alcohol only exacerbates anxiety and depression,” Zavislak tells Fortune. “So, yes, in a very different sense, people are too sad to buy champagne—but only because they have accepted that the champagne will only make them sadder. I have lost count of the number of clients who have either stopped drinking or who have cut back considerably.”
The last time someone handed me champagne for a toast, I poured it out after the toast and continued drinking something that tasted better. Even high quality champagne is just awful, I’ll take a high quality red wine or beer or any number of liquors over it any day. But sure, they can blame people being sad rather than that people have more choices than ever today and just aren’t choosing their products.
If you lack the taste to appreciate fine, exquisite cat piss, you shouldn’t think everyone else has the same problem.
When I was drinking, I wouldn’t touch the stuff - gives me terrible indigestion.
Also, champagne is nasty
I’ve only tried champagne once.
Once was plenty.
Virtually every other sparkling wine in France is more pleasant to drink than that bitter, dry pishwater.
Anything called “crémant de…” and labelled “demi-sec” is far more enjoyable
Except crémant de Savoie. We don’t talk about Savoie wines
Wine in general is shit as an alcohol. Lots of sugar so it makes you fat, fills you up, and gives you a hangover. Add to that the entire wine industry is a facade based on brand awareness and marketing. There are $2 wines that have won competitions vs very expensive wines judged by sommeliers who dedicate their lives to wine (it’s almost like it’s all bullshit shhhhh). Gen Z drinks less in general and is broke n can’t afford a house just like millennials. I couldn’t be bothered to waste my money on wine regardless of vintage, varietal or vineyard. If my boomer uncle brings a fancy bottle down and opens it for dinner, sure, I’ll have a glass or 2 with dinner, but I’m not going out of my way for it.
I hate champagne.
Its the worst thing you can do to vine.
In Germany the alcoholic rate goes brrrr. The gov here wants to raise the legal drinking age (With a parent) to 16 instead of 14.
