Exports to some markets stopped altogether after the Great War: Germany, Austria, Hungary and Poland were amongst these for obvious reasons and sales to Russia dried up too in the wake of the revolution. What may have been more frustrating and surprising to the champenois however was what was going on in the USA, where Prohibition came into force in January 1920. Thus was potentially extremely damaging because the USA was the fourth biggest market for champagne immediately before the Great War, but perhaps the effects were not as bad as at first feared because it is estimated that between 1920 and 1940 some 40 million bottles of champagne found their way clandestinely into the States by one means or another.
However the general trend for exports was down and as they continued to decline champagne producers attempted to compensate by boosting sales in the French market, but to do so they resorted to massive advertising campaigns and reducing prices. Some of the consequences were predictable but others not.
From 1923 France became the No.1 market for consumption of champagne, a position it has, remarkably, retained until the present day and by 1924 prosperity was beginning to return to Champagne despite the fact that export sales were 30% down on the 1912/13 level before the war.
The extra sales volume in France however could not make up for the lost value in sales elsewhere and there was still an underlying unease in Champagne. It was against this background that the first cooperatives were borne when significant numbers of grape growers agreed to work together to share the costs of production, storage and sales. Today almost a hundred years later, cooperatives have become hugely influential in the champagne trade and in many cases have become the most significant competitors to the grandes maisons in a way that could hardly have been imagined back in the early 1920s.
For the next 15 years it was a case of stop, start, stop in Champagne with one crisis followed by the green shoots of recovery only for these to be dashed by a new disaster in a way that puts the current, relatively minor, ups and downs of the early years of the 21st century into perspective.
The first signs of financial hard times began to appear in France in 1927 when sales dropped from 14 million bottles to just 8 million.
Next came the famous Wall Street Crash of 1929 which cast a damp and dark shadow on any hopes of a recovery in champagne sales and exports plummeted to just 4.5 million bottles in 1932.
On a positive note Prohibition in the USA was ended in 1933 but, as noted above, Prohibition may not have had as significant an impact as one might have imagined on actual consumption of champagne.
By 1934 the champagne houses had 150 million bottles in stock – a catastrophic amount given that shipments that year were less than 28 million. That meant there was more than 5 years’ worth of sales in stock whereas the target figure for a healthy business is just over 3. Inevitably prices fell, producers went bust and grape growers suffered yet another round of hard times.
From all these trials and tribulations the champenois had learned that things can change quickly – in both directions. The next swing of fate’s pendulum was favourable and came as soon as 1936 when exports climbed back to the level of 1930, although that was still only 50% of the level before the Great War. By 1937 prospects were sufficiently promising for Moët & Chandon to launch Cuvée Dom Pérignon.
The euphoria, although that’s probably too strong a word for it, was short lived and came to and end at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Unlike during the Great War, champagne production continued during the 1939-45 conflict because this time around the vineyards were not the scene of fierce fighting and bombardment. In addition the occupying forces insisted that champagne production continue as before in order to supply the Nazi regime in Germany. The tales of the ingenuity and bravery of the champenois as they pitted their wits against the occupiers are as fascinating as they are numerous and well worth reading
As you can see from the chart below, official exports were close to zero during the war (just 4 million bottles in 1945) despite the fact that umpteen millions of bottles were forcibly requisitioned. Remarkably shipments to the French market remained reasonably stable.
In 1945 the same need existed to rebuild champagne as had been witnessed in 1918. By 1955 sales had been rebuilt back to 37 million the same volume as just before the war and although they did not realise it at the time the champenois were standing on the cups of a prolonged period of expansion in France and overseas that was to transform the fortunes of everyone involved in the second half of the 20th century. By 1959 shipments had almost reached the previously-never-attained 50 million bottle mark and even more was to come.
