2026-08-28
Prosecco was the main growth story in France’s restaurant and bar trade in 2025, rising 22.6% in purchases made through major wholesalers and cash-and-carry operators, even as still wine continued to lose ground and champagne declined again, according to FranceAgriMer data published Friday.
The figures cover wine bought by the commercial hospitality sector through organized distribution in France during 2025. They show a market that is still shrinking in volume, with operators buying less still wine and turning more clearly toward sparkling products, especially lower-priced options. FranceAgriMer’s report found that still wine purchases fell 4.9% to about 1.289 million hectoliters, a drop of roughly 66,400 hl from the previous year.
That decline was also reflected in spending. The value of still wine purchases fell 5.2% to €587 million, or about €32.2 million less than in 2024. Across all wine categories covered by the panel, total volume declined 3.6% and total value fell 3.8% in 2025, showing that the French foodservice market remained under pressure even before taking into account purchases made outside the panel.
Sparkling wine moved in the opposite direction in volume terms. Purchases rose 6.3% to about 180,590 hl, an increase of around 10,700 hl. But revenue from sparkling wine increased only 0.9% to €193 million. The weaker gain in value than in volume suggests a lower average price per unit or a move toward less expensive labels, a pattern consistent with prosecco’s strong advance and champagne’s continued retreat.
Within sparkling wine, prosecco delivered the strongest increase, up 22.6%. Crémant d’Alsace also posted growth, rising 5.4%. Champagne moved lower, with purchases down 5.5% in 2025, and the category remained 25.7% below its 2019 level. The data point to a continued substitution inside the sparkling segment, with restaurants and bars favoring more affordable bottles over higher-priced champagne.
Still wine showed broader weakness across categories. FranceAgriMer said wines with AOP status, France’s protected appellation category, recorded the largest absolute loss. Their purchases fell by 31,000 hl, a decline of 7.1%. That made AOP the biggest contributor to the drop in still wine volumes, underscoring how the pressure is affecting not only entry-level products but also traditional appellation wines that have long anchored restaurant wine lists in France.
The report’s broader message is that the only meaningful physical growth in the market came from sparkling wine, and chiefly from prosecco. At the same time, France’s commercial hospitality sector continued to reduce purchases of still wine and champagne. FranceAgriMer said overall turnover in the market remains higher than in 2019 largely because of price effects, even though volumes have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
The agency also warned against reading the figures as a full picture of French hospitality demand. Its panel includes nine large wholesalers and cash-and-carry operators and represents a little more than 40% of commercial foodservice wine purchases by volume. It does not include direct purchases from wineries and does not cover the whole hospitality market, meaning the results are a strong market indicator but not a complete census of all wine buying by French restaurants, cafes and bars.