Sparkling wine and Champagne fared well even during the height of the pandemic, with share of sales on Drizly increasing more than 13 percent from 2019 to 2021. That growth and overall interest in the category has only continued into 2022. According to IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, sparkling wine has increased by 30 percent in the United States from 2019 to 2022, and the U.S. is the world’s most valuable sparkling wine market. It’s also the third largest market by volume.

Recent increased sales build on a long history of growth in the subcategory. Sparkling wine sales in the U.S. have grown every year for the past two decades, according to IWSR. That growth is likely to continue, with IWSR analysts predicting that sparkling wine will grow by more than 15 percent in volume from 2021 to 2026. The same study predicts that the U.S. will account for nearly 15 percent of total sparkling wine sales around the world by 2026.

Drizly’s Top 20 Best-Selling Sparkling Wines, 2022 to Date

1. Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label Champagne (750mL)
2. La Marca Prosecco
3. Dom Pérignon Vintage Champagne
4. Moët & Chandon Impérial Brut Champagne
5. Mionetto Prosecco Brut
6. Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Gift Box Champagne
7. Veuve Clicquot Rosé Champagne
8. Korbel Brut California Champagne
9. Moët & Chandon Impérial Rosé Champagne
10. Chandon Brut Sparkling
11. Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Reserve Exclusive
12. Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut Champagne
13. Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut Cava
14. Moët & Chandon Nectar Impérial Rosé Champagne
15. Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque Brut Champagne
16. Cupcake Vineyards Prosecco White Wine
17. Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label Champagne (1.5L)
18. La Marca Prosecco Rosé DOC
19. Chandon Rosé Sparkling
20. Mumm Napa Brut Prestige Sparkling Wine

A Global Champagne Market research report looking at sales projections from 2022 to 2028 found the key Champagne brands to keep an eye on over the next half-decade are Moët & Chandon, Nicolas Feuillatte, Veuve Clicquot, Laurent-Perrier, Dom Pérignon, Mumm, Piper Heidsieck, Pommery, Taittinger, and Louis Roederer. 

On Drizly in 2022, Veuve Clicquot is the leading Champagne brand with four SKUs in the top 20 sparkling wines, followed by Moët & Chandon with three, Perrier Joüet with two, and Dom Pérignon and Nicolas Feuillatte each with one.

La Marca is the only Prosecco brand with two SKUs in the top 20 sparkling wines, including the number two spot.

The top brands have stayed steady compared to Drizly sales in 2021. Veuve Clicquot, La Marca, Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon, and Korbel were the top selling sparkling wine brands last year.

Champagne Leads the Way For Sparkling Wine

In the sparkling wine subcategory on Drizly, Champagne holds the majority of the top 20 sellers with 55 percent of the top-selling SKUs. By overall share of the sparkling wine subcategory, Champagne has a 58 percent share, followed by Prosecco (23 percent share), sparkling rosé (nine percent share), American sparkling (six percent share), and Cava (three percent share).

Champagne can be an important sales driver for retailers as it commands the highest price point for in the sparkling wine subcategory. Over the past 12 months, the average unit price point for Champagne was $54.30, compared to $17 for all other sparkling wine subcategories.

Growth in Champagne sales is only expected to continue. Champagne saw a nearly 64 percent increase in shipments to the U.S. in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to the Champagne region’s trade association Comité Champagne. In 2022, the U.S. has seen a nearly 14 percent increase in shipments in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2021.

Women and Under-40 Consumers Lead Sparkling Wine Purchasing

On Drizly, Champagne and sparkling wine sales have historically skewed female. In the past 12 months to date, women held a 63 percent share of purchases. This trend held constant during the holiday season, says Liz Paquette, Drizly’s head of consumer insights.

Sparkling wine also trends younger overall compared to other wine subcategories. According to profiling data for 2021 by Wine Intelligence, people under 40 made up 50 percent of the total sparkling wine drinking population. That’s higher than the 30 percent share that millennials and Gen Z consumers own of monthly still wine drinkers.

Regionally, major urban areas over-index on sparkling wine sales on Drizly. The top markets relative to overall sales are Manhattan, Los Angeles, and Miami.

December Boosts Sparkling Wine and Champagne Sales

On Drizly, sparkling wine lags behind both the red and white wine subcategories, but still holds a notable 23 percent share of the wine category’s sales on Drizly in 2022. Yet the year-over-year growth in the subcategory will likely only be bolstered by the holiday season, which has traditionally seen a large bump in sales for sparkling wine. 

December is the biggest month for sparkling wine sales on Drizly overall. In 2021, for example, Champagne and sparkling wine share moved into the second-highest selling wine subcategory, above white wine. Sparkling wine held a 34 percent share of the wine category in December 2021, which was just four percentage points behind red wine. 

New Year’s Eve is the biggest single day for sparkling wine sales on Drizly. On New Year’s Eve 2021, Champagne and sparkling wine held a 64 percent share of sales in the wine category on Drizly, led by Champagne with a 69 percent share of the sparkling wine subcategory (which was the same as the previous year). The top sales day of the year was December 31.

Inflation Could Impact Sparkling Wine Trends

According to an IWSR analysis of alcohol sales during recessions and high inflation in the United States, inflation doesn’t necessarily correlate with less wine sales by volume. In fact, the middle-price-point wine segment continues to grow during recessions, according to the research, while premium and above options see slower growth by volume.

Still, there are fears that inflation and a slowing economy will impact sparkling wine and Champagne this year — the latter of which has benefitted from recent premiumization trends. Portfolio diversification is one key way that retailers can mitigate risk.

“In our most recent retail survey, 59 percent of retailer respondents indicated that they expect people to buy less expensive Champagne and sparkling wine this year compared to last year,” says Paquette. “Given the potential impact of inflation on consumer spending this holiday season, we recommend retailers stock a variety of sparkling wine across price points to meet the budgets across customers.”

For a well-rounded selection, JT Robertson, the wine director at Le Dû Wines in New York City, suggests supplementing any sparkling wine selection with sparkling wine outside of Champagne, as well as smaller brands.

“In terms of sparkling wine, Prosecco is as strong as ever, at the lower end of the market,” says Robertson. “At the higher end, there are no categories which are even close to challenging Champagne’s hold over the public’s imagination. Higher end Crémant has been gaining traction while sparkling rosé seems to be sliding, even as interest in still rosé is higher than ever.”

There’s diversification to be found in the largest sparkling wine segment on Drizly as well.

“If retailers want to get off the big-brand carousel, which is heavily affected by price games across the market, I’d recommend finding smaller brands they believe in and carrying a number of SKUs across their range,” says Robertson. “By being branding agents for smaller producers, retailers can both expose their customers to new producers while also controlling their own destinies when it comes to pricing and margins.”

Doing so allows retailers to capitalize on the growing interest in smaller brands overall that Robertson has seen over the past five to seven years.

“Brand loyalty, in terms of consumers only accepting the big brands, has dramatically decreased,” says Robertson. “There was a time where if you didn’t have a particularly favored and familiar Champagne brand, customers would go somewhere else. This is no longer the case.”