CHAMPAGNE: I Get No Kick At This Price

Partygoers who like to ring in the New Year with Dom Perignon may have to make do with his cheaper relations from California or Spain. As the holidays arrive, champagne prices are expected to start popping like corks. American consumers, who now pay about $24 for a bottle of nonvintage Moet & Chandon or Taittinger, may have to spend $30 or more this season. A combination of forces is to blame: the weak U.S. dollar, an April frost in France’s Champagne region and an effort by vintners to increase profits. During the past decade, French champagne producers pitched their product to the masses and succeeded so well that sales hit a record 250 million bottles last year, up 75% since 1982. Thinking they had priced the bubbly too cheaply, vintners are raising wholesale prices 20% or more. But some champagne makers fear that the trend may price French brands out of the party market, since consumers can turn to new Californian and Australian varieties.