Champagne losing its fizz as global pandemic clobbers sales

THOMAS ADAMSON

Associated Press

REIMS, France (AP) - Champagne is losing its fizz. For months, lockdown put the cork on weddings, dining out, parties and international travel - all key sales components for the French luxury wine marketed for decades as a sparkling must at any celebration.

Producers in France's eastern Champagne region, headquarters of the global industry, say they've lost an estimated 1.7 billion euros ($2 billion) in sales for this year, as turnover fell by a third - a hammering unmatched in living memory, and worse than the Great Depression.

They expect about 100 million bot...