Champagne demand ‘at an all-time high,’ wine expert says

Champagne demand ‘at an all-time high,’ wine expert says

Wine Spectator Senior Editor and Tasting Director Alison Napjus joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the rising cost of champagne and where to find the best value for sparkling wines.

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Champagne demand ‘at an all-time high,’ wine expert says

Sat, December 31, 2022, 2:09 AM GMT+9

Wine Spectator Senior Editor and Tasting Director Alison Napjus joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the rising cost of champagne and where to find the best value for sparkling wines.

Video Transcript

- In the spirit of New Year's, our next guest says the demand for champagne is at an all time high. Let's bring in Alison Napjus, who is the senior editor and tasting director at "Wine Spectator" magazine-- perhaps my next career. Thanks so much for joining us here today. Very exciting to have you on, very festive occasion, of course-- many people looking to where they should get their champagne and perhaps do it at a reasonable price. What tips do you have?

ALISON NAPJUS: Well I mean, I think the first thing to say is that, yes. Champagne is at an all time high. So finding champagne at an affordable price-- I was actually surprised by some of those averages. You're going to have to shop around a little bit, but I think if you do that, if you look at your local retailers, look online, you can certainly still find a good value in champagne. And of course, if you're somebody who wants to splurge, we've got bottles for that too.

- Alison, it appears that you are surrounded by various forms of bubbly or wine. I apologize in advance if I got that wrong. What is the most expensive bottle in front of you and why is it cost so much?

ALISON NAPJUS: This is Dom Perignon, $250 a bottle. So I gave this 96 points. It's a 2013, which is actually their current release, and part of that really goes into the cost of it. Champagne-- part of the reason it's so expensive is that even a non-vintage, the most introductory version starts-- it's aged for at least 18 months, very often more times, three or four years.

And then when you're talking about vintage bottles like this Dom Perignon, you're looking at 10 years, sometimes many more years than that-- 10 or 15 before release. So it's part of the complexity of the wine, and the winemakers are basically aging it perfectly for you. And of course, that's holding onto inventory, and that raises the price slightly.