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Moet & Chandon sold an estimated 30 million bottles including Moët & Chandon Brut Impérial Non-Vintage whereas the nearest label in volume Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut Non-Vintage sold a total of appx. 19 million bottles. Its producer Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin is also owned by the giant making it 49 million bottles for these top two champagne houses alone. The top Ten brands account over 30% of the market with an estimated sale of 97 million bottles.
Others in the pecking order in the Honours List are the big co-operative-produced Nicolas Feuillatte, G H Mumm, Laurent Perrier, Taittinger, Pommery, Piper Heidsieck, Lanson and Canard-Duchêne.
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Brut NV Champagne is made from a blend of different harvests with a dosage of less than 12 grams per litre (g/l) of residual sugar, with a 3g/l tolerance. All the top 10 names have lowered the amount of sugar in their blends during the last 15 years , with an average drop in dosages of 2.8 g/l. This is reflection of increase in Brut Non Vintage (NV) quality resulting from harvesting riper, cleaner grapes, as well as producing richer, more complex blends through, Increasing amounts of reserve wine and longer ageing on the lees. All the champagnes selected have 8-11 gms/liter of residual sugar.
Interestingly, most of these supermarket level wines are available in India or at least have been in the market in the recent past. Moet and Veuve Clicquot are imported by the wholly-owned subsidiary Moet Hennessy India Pvt Ltd. After saying goodbye to Lombard, Aspri has been importing Nicolas Feuillatte since last year. G. H. Mumm is the champagne from Pernod Ricard which hasn’t been able to compete with Moet, despite their Jacob’s Creek being the most popular brand for a foreign wine.
Laurent Perrier had been in the portfolio of Global Tax-Free but not anymore. Taittinger is being promoted by Prestige who has aggressive plans to expand next year after the visit of Clovis Taittinger, Marketing Director of the family-owned champagne house in September this year. Pommery has been in the imported wine portfolio of Brindco but its future with them is not certain. Piper Heidsieck has been imported by Sula Selection for years though it has not made a sizable dent in the market. Lanson does not seem to have any importer right now. Canard-Duchêne was launched in grand style by Mumbai-based Finewinesnmore which totally stopped the import business a couple of years. Unfortunately, the label could not make much headway in the Moet & Chandon dominated market.
When you talk of champagne in India, the first image that comes to mind is the Champagne Brunch- a clever innovation by progressive hotel restaurants that serve unlimited and delicious food with unlimited champagne of different labels on Sundays. While one can find a reasonably priced Brunch with unlimited champagne for Rs. 3650++ in Pullman Aerocity New Delhi, Oberoi Gurgaon still offers the best value-for-money Brunches on Sundays for champagne lovers in India, with 10 champagnes and 2 top quality Italian sparkling wines-Ferrari and Bella Vista, priced at Rs. 4950++.
Here is a list of the Top Ten selling champagnes:
S.N.
|
Champagne
|
Label
|
Grape
Blend (approx.):
|
Dosage
(g/l):
|
Annual
sales 2015
|
|
|
|
|
|
(million
bottles)
|
1.
|
Moët
& Chandon
|
Moët &
Chandon Brut Impérial NV
|
40% PN,
40% PM, 20% Ch
|
9
|
30
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2.
|
Veuve
Clicquot
|
Veuve
Clicquot Yellow Label Brut NV
|
50% PN;
20% PM, 30% Ch
|
9-10
|
19
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3.
|
Nicolas
Feuillatte
|
Nicolas
Feuillatte Brut Reserve NV
|
40% PN,
35% PM, 25% Ch
|
9-10
|
10.8
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4.
|
G.H.
Mumm
|
G.H.
Mumm Cordon Rouge Brut NV
|
45% PN,
30% Ch, 25% PM
|
8-9
|
7.55
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5.
|
Laurent-Perrier
|
Laurent-Perrier
Brut NV
|
50% Ch,
35% PN, 15% PM
|
10-10.9
|
7.26
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
6.
|
Taittinger
|
Taittinger
Brut Réserve NV
|
40% Ch,
30% PN, 30% PM
|
9-10
|
5.5
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7.
|
Pommery
|
Pommery
Brut Royal NV
|
33% Ch,
33% PN, 33% PM
|
9-10
|
4.38
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
8.
|
Piper-Heidsieck
|
Piper-Heidsieck
Cuvée Brut NV
|
55% PN,
30% PM, 15% Ch
|
10-10.9
|
4.3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9.
|
Lanson
|
Lanson
Black Label Brut NV
|
50% PN,
35% Ch, 15% PM
|
8
|
4.2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10.
|
Canard-Duchêne
|
Canard-Duchêne
Authentic Brut NV
|
45% PN,
40% PM, 20% Ch
|
9-10
|
4.1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
|
97.09 million bottles
|
Subhash Arora |