Prosecco Is Outselling Champagne in French Supermarkets. Yes, France.

France gave the world Champagne. The name alone can make an ordinary dinner sound like someone is getting married. So imagine the surprise when French supermarket figures showed Prosecco outselling Champagne, with shoppers buying more bottles of the Italian wine.

Yes, France. The country that practically invented the art of making a celebration out of opening a bottle.

Before Italy starts waving flags, there is a detail that matters. Prosecco has not overtaken Champagne across the whole French market. It has edged ahead in supermarkets, and only by a small margin. But the numbers say a lot about money, drinking habits and what happens when a wine becomes too special for an ordinary evening.

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Quick Facts

• The result: 25.31 million bottles of Prosecco against 25.23 million of Champagne, in French supermarkets and hypermarkets over the 12 months to the end of July 2026
• The gap: about 80,000 bottles, or roughly 0.3%
• The direction: Prosecco up 10.1%, Champagne down 4.6%
• The price: about €6 a bottle for Prosecco, about €25 for Champagne
• The catch: this is one sales channel, and it leaves out hard discount stores, wine shops, restaurants and direct sales from producers

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The French Supermarket Surprise

Circana, a market research company, tracked sales in French supermarkets and hypermarkets for the 12 months to the end of July 2026. Shoppers bought 25.31 million bottles of Prosecco and 25.23 million bottles of Champagne.

That is a difference of just 80,000 bottles, hardly enough to declare a national emergency. The direction is what matters: Prosecco grew by 10.1%, while Champagne fell by 4.6%.

French supermarket sales	Prosecco	Champagne
Bottles sold	25.31 million	25.23 million
Annual change	+10.1%	−4.6%
Average bottle price	About €6	About €25

These figures cover supermarkets and hypermarkets only. Hard discount stores, wine shops, restaurants and direct sales from producers are not counted. Some French media call this a first, while at least one outlet says it is the second year in a row. The sources disagree, so I won’t claim either.

Even so, it is a remarkable result. French shoppers haven’t forgotten where Champagne comes from. They have simply found that Italian bubbles can make a convincing argument from the supermarket shelf.

And that argument starts with the price tag.

The €6 Bottle Versus the €25 Bottle

Imagine you are hosting dinner for eight friends and you need three bottles of sparkling wine. At the reported average prices, Prosecco would cost about €18. Champagne would cost about €75.

That is €57 saved, which buys a very decent cheese board with change left over.

Of course, the two wines aren’t identical. Champagne has different production rules, often spends much longer ageing, and generally costs more to make. I explained those differences in Why Champagne Is So Expensive.

But supermarket shopping has its own logic. Nobody stands in the wine aisle calculating the cost of cellar ageing while their frozen peas slowly defrost. People look at the price, think about the occasion and decide what makes sense. Sometimes the occasion is simply that it’s Friday.

That doesn’t mean Prosecco is better than Champagne. It means the cheaper bottle is finding more chances to be opened.

It Isn’t Only the Supermarkets

Restaurants and bars point the same way. FranceAgriMer figures, which cover wine bought by restaurants and bars through wholesalers and cash-and-carry outlets, show Prosecco purchases up 22.6% in volume in 2025, while Champagne purchases fell 5.5%.

The Aperol Spritz has probably helped, since Prosecco is a key ingredient and a spritz doesn’t need the ceremony of opening Champagne. But the figures don’t prove it, so I wouldn’t credit one cocktail for the whole trend. For the bigger argument about why Prosecco keeps being underestimated next to Champagne, I wrote Why Prosecco Keeps Losing to Champagne, Even When It Wins. And for how Italians drink it at home, there is Aperitivo Culture Explained.

France is also a bright spot, not the whole picture. Italy’s Prosecco DOP exports slipped 2.2% in value in the first five months of 2026, as I covered in Italian Wine Exports Are Falling. Asti Just Grew 35% Anyway.

Have the French Fallen Out of Love With Champagne?

Not quite.

Buying more Prosecco doesn’t mean French shoppers prefer it. You can admire an expensive wine and still buy something cheaper for everyday drinking. Most of us have a favourite restaurant we don’t visit every week, and nobody assumes we’ve stopped loving it.

Champagne also sells through channels these figures don’t capture. According to figures reported by Rayon Boissons, exports take more than half of its shipments, and Champagne houses shipped about 114 million bottles to French customers in 2025 across all channels. Supermarkets are only a slice of that.

Still, Champagne has a problem in the aisles. In Circana’s wider mass retail count, as reported by Rayon Boissons, which includes convenience stores, online grocery and discount chains, Champagne volumes are down about 40% since 2021, from 45.47 million bottles to 26.82 million. About a third of what is sold now goes out on promotion, and Champagne under €15 has almost vanished from shelves. The budget end of Champagne has quietly left the party without saying goodbye.

That suggests a question. Champagne’s greatest strength is its link with luxury and celebration, but does that also limit how often people feel comfortable buying it? If a bottle feels too special for an ordinary dinner, it may spend a long time waiting for an occasion. Prosecco doesn’t have that problem. I covered the other differences between the two in Stop Calling Prosecco Italian Champagne.

Italian producers should pay attention too. Low prices have helped Prosecco grow, but not every producer wants to compete at supermarket prices forever. The challenge is to stay approachable while showing buyers why some Proseccos deserve a little more money and attention.

So, Has Prosecco Beaten Champagne?

In this particular French supermarket comparison, yes. Across the whole market, nobody can say yet.

Eighty thousand bottles is not a revolution. But it is a €6 bottle quietly winning the aisle in the country that invented the celebration, and I like to imagine somebody in Reims spilling their coffee. Prosecco didn’t need a wedding to get there. It just needed a price people could live with.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Prosecco outselling Champagne in France?

In French supermarkets and hypermarkets, yes, by a small margin. Circana figures for the 12 months to the end of July 2026 show 25.31 million bottles of Prosecco against 25.23 million of Champagne. Wine shops, restaurants, direct sales and hard discount stores aren’t included, so this doesn’t settle the whole market.

How many bottles of Prosecco were sold in French supermarkets?

About 25.31 million over the 12 months to the end of July 2026, against 25.23 million bottles of Champagne.

Why is Prosecco becoming more popular in France?

Its lower price, its fit for casual occasions and its place in cocktails such as the Aperol Spritz are likely factors. The sales figures alone can’t show how much each one contributed.

Is Prosecco cheaper than Champagne?

Generally, yes. In the French supermarket data, Prosecco averaged about €6 a bottle and Champagne about €25. Prices vary a lot by producer and shop.

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One Last Thing

I’m not picking a side. A great Champagne for a real celebration and a good Prosecco for everything in between is a perfectly sensible cellar, and the French supermarket aisle suggests plenty of people already live that way.

So what would you rather find in your fridge on a quiet Friday? Tell me which bottle it is.

— Kelly 🍷

#Prosecco #Champagne #ItalianWine #WineNews #SparklingWine

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Continue Reading

• Prosecco Exports to China Jumped 30%. Here’s Why That Number Is Smaller Than It Sounds.
• Why Is South Korea Falling for Prosecco?
• The Complete Guide to Prosecco: Italy’s Most Joyful Wine

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Sources

• Qz France: Le prosecco dépasse le champagne en supermarché en France
• Vinetur: Prosecco outsold champagne in French supermarkets for a second straight year
• La Champagne de Sophie Claeys: Le prosecco détrône le champagne en supermarché ? Il ne faudrait pas pousser le bouchon ! (summarising Rayon Boissons and Circana)
• Vinetur: Prosecco purchases by French restaurants and bars rose 22.6% in 2025

Information checked in November 2026. The supermarket figures cover the 12 months to the end of July 2026 and only supermarkets and hypermarkets, so they should not be read as full-year sales or as a result across every French sales channel.