BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – The European Union saw its sparkling wine exports to the rest world fall last year, Eurostat reported on Friday. This was largely due to a huge drop in champagne sales. However, prosecco, cava and other bubbly wines were well-sold.

In 2020, wine trade worldwide was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Restaurants and bars were closed long-term.

Champagne suffered the most. From nearly 84million litres the year before, sales outside of the EU for the French sparkling wine plunged by 20%.

This explains the 6% drop in EU sparkling wine exports last year, compared with 2019, Eurostat data revealed.

EU exports dropped from a peak at 528 millions litres (2019) to 494million litres (2020), still more than twice as high as the 2010 level.

Only champagne saw a notable volume drop in exports from the EU of the main sparkling wines,

Prosecco, the export most popular, saw sales of nearly 207 millions litres in 2019 compared with 205 million in 2020.

Cava, which is made in Spain, has resisted the trend and increased extra-EU exports to more than 10%, to 58,000,000 litres, in 2020. It will be close to replacing champagne, the EU’s second-most-sold sparkling wine.

According to estimates by CIVC, champagne volume sales worldwide fell 18% in 2013 (including the EU).

Even though sales volume has dropped, investors have found vintage champagnes to be a great investment option. This year they outperformed every major asset in the financial market, from Big Tech and bitcoin. Salon le Mesnil’s 2002 vintage rose to more than 80 percent in value on internet platforms by 2021.