ET VOILA’... CHAMPAGNE EXPORTS SOAR: +19.5% IN 2010. FRANCE IS THRILLED BECAUSE AFTER TWO YEARS OF DECLINE THE “BUBBLES” ARE TOP SELLERS ON WORLD MARKETS: USA + 34% AND UK +16%. NEW NON-EU MARKETS +87.6%

After two years of steady decline, exports of French champagne have greatly increased: +19.5% - 134.5 million bottles in 2010. The Interprofessional Committee of the Wines of Champagne (CIVC) reported this data last night. The UK was once again the top sales market with 35.5 million bottles purchased, +16.3% compared to 2009, followed by the United States (16.9 million bottles, +34.9%), Germany (+21.6%) and Belgium (+7.8%). The Netherlands was the only country with negative sales: exports of French champagne fell 9.5%, down to 2.4 million bottles. The highest increases, however, were on the new markets outside Europe: in 2010 champagne exports to Russia increased by 87.6% (1.07 million bottles), while Brazil (+63.2%) exceeded, for the first time, 600.000 bottles of the pre-crisis period, and reached almost a million bottles. For the first time in history, more than one million bottles were exported to China (+89.9% compared to 2009). Exports account for 42% of the total sales of champagne, but the domestic market is also stronger: 184 million bottles were sold in France in 2010, for +2.3%. In all, 319.5 million bottles were sold in the world for a turnover of 4.109 billion euros. This figure is not far from the 2007 record, just before the crisis, when the sector experienced a boom in sales reaching 338.7 million euros.