For centuries, France has exported bottled elegance to the world. He french champagne It is the national pride par excellence and as I said Napoleon“in victory you deserve it, but in defeat you need it.” Its bubbles are protagonists in the most important celebrations, and are symbol of luxury, power and global prestige. However, they are also a reflection of the current French decadence; victim of trade tensions, climate change, and the lack of generational replacement.
In recent months, champagne has suffered a major setback against the Donald Trump’s trade war. Throughout this year, the president of the United States repeatedly threatened to apply 200% tariffs on wine and champagne, although finally, the rate was reduced to 15%. Despite this, the union continues to be “concerned” about the effects that this may have on the trade balance with what is its main export market outside the EU.
French exports of wine and champagne to the United States reached in 2024 the 3.8 billion euroswhich represents 24.5% of the total exported by France in this sector. However, the French Export Federation of Wines and Spirits (FEVS) fears that these numbers will now be affected by these new trade regulations.
The external threat
These new tariffs have forced the wine sector to look towards other markets, although the federation recognizes that this is not the first time they have faced this evil. In addition, state taxes applied in each of the 50 states of the country are added to these recent rates. Some taxes on alcohol, which vary between 4% and 9%. This means that the final price of a bottle ends up exceeding 12 euros on average, once in North American supermarkets.
For the president of the FEVS Federation, Gabriel Picard, “this policy will only create losers,” and he recently highlighted that the French market is not the only one concerned about this situation. With this external threat, the sector has discovered its vulnerability along with other risks that the vineyards have suffered for years, such as the lack of generational change or the change in consumption among the youngest.
Without generational change and facing a change in consumption
He change in alcohol consumption In new generations, it is also affecting ‘champagne’. 25% of French young people aged 18 to 25 do not drink alcohol, according to the latest survey by Sowine and Dynata. 80% declared in the study that they opted for non-alcoholic drinks and to “take care of their health.”
“I don’t drink any alcohol. Mainly because it no longer feels good to me and because I’m no longer interested. I think the culture of alcohol has been normalized. Drinking for the sake of drinking when going out with friends,” confesses Théo, a young Parisian. This change in consumption affected the sales of French liquid gold with an approximate drop of 7% in 2024 and 5% in the first months of 2025.
Increasingly young people choose to drink less expensive drinks or for beer, labeling champagne as a luxury item, less accessible and reserved for large celebrations. Faced with these new trends, the French Champagne Committee, together with producers, suggested drastically reducing the amount of grapes harvested in 2024, after disappointing sales and with customers who are reluctant to spend on this type of items, also as a consequence of the unstoppable inflation that France suffers, which has a direct impact on citizens’ shopping baskets.
A generational change that is not only noticeable in supermarkets, but also on the field, where they suffer the lack of relief in the wineries. Currently, the average age of French winegrowers exceeds 50 years, and this generates a significant risk of the loss of artisanal tradition and, as a consequence, the concentration of production in the hands of large houses.
Work in the countryside is increasingly less attractive for young people, who are looking for other professional opportunities far from the precariousness that French agriculture is experiencing, full of important challenges such as “the suffocation of bureaucracy” that leaves little margin for profit, the new European agreement with Mercosur, which has generated great indignation in the French countryside, or the drastic effects of climate change that in recent years have left million-dollar losses in the countryside.
The impact of the environment
He climate change It is one of the main challenges for a sector that suffers its effects first-hand. In recent years, France has suffered major droughts and major floods, throwing lose millions of euros in crops.
In 2024, the champagne harvest was affected by weather conditions after significant rain and frost, causing a drop in production and diseases in the vineyard such as mildew. This year, French wine production is expected to see reduced 16% below the average of recent years due to droughts.
A group of researchers has published a study in the journal European Geosciences Unionwhere he demonstrates from historical records dating back to the year 1354, that Since 1988, collection has been brought forward thirteen days. A fact that affects the flavor of the grape, and as a consequence determines the quality of wine and champagne. “We can say that in 2050, in many French wine regions, the harvest will take place around August 15, in the middle of summer,” and not at the end of September as until now, says Jean-Marc Touzard, researcher at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research.
The drink that for centuries embodied luxury, generational stability and prestige of France is now beginning to show great uncertainty trapped by a trade war, with an aging field, and a lack of prestige among young people.
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