LVMH's Wines & Spirits division closed 2025 with a story of two halves — and the ending was rather more palatable than the opening act. After a bruising first half that saw organic revenue decline 9% in Q1 and 4% in Q2, the division returned to positive growth of 1% in the third quarter, led by a champagne and wine segment that turned the corner with 2% growth from Q2 onwards.
The recovery, while modest in percentage terms, represents something more significant in strategic terms. LVMH's champagne houses — Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon, Veuve Clicquot, Krug, and Ruinart — collectively achieved record average selling prices per bottle, a vindication of the premiumisation strategy that Bernard Arnault has pursued relentlessly across the luxury group's portfolio.
Value Over Volume: The New Champagne Playbook
The numbers tell a compelling story of deliberate restraint. While LVMH's champagne volumes dipped alongside the broader regional decline — CIVC data shows total Champagne shipments fell to approximately 266 million bottles in 2025, down 2% on 2024's already diminished 271.4 million — the group's brand valuations surged. Moët & Chandon's brand value rose 9% to US$1.4 billion, while Dom Pérignon climbed 7% to US$799.8 million. LVMH now owns all four of the world's most valuable wine brands.
MHCS, LVMH's champagne services arm, retained its position as the leading champagne seller globally in 2024, a dominance that appears to have carried through the recovery year. The full-year Wines & Spirits division revenue is estimated at EUR 5.35–5.4 billion, down 5% organically — a marked improvement on 2024's 11% decline to EUR 5.86 billion, though recurring operating income fell approximately 25% to around EUR 1 billion.
Management Reshuffle Signals Strategic Priority
Perhaps the clearest indicator of how seriously Arnault views the wine and spirits portfolio: former CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony was moved to lead Moët Hennessy directly, while Alexandre Arnault — Bernard's son — assumed a deputy CEO role with oversight of the division. When the patriarch installs family at the helm, you can be certain the asset is considered crown-jewel territory.
The reshuffle comes against a backdrop of significant headwinds. US tariffs on EU wines, initially set at 20% in April 2025 before being temporarily reduced to 10%, continue to cloud the outlook. More ominously, repeated threats of 200% tariffs on French wines — first in March 2025 over EU retaliatory measures, then again in January 2026 — have introduced a level of uncertainty that makes long-term planning exceptionally difficult. French wine exports to the US totalled EUR 5.2 billion in 2025, roughly 20% of France's global wine exports.
Regional Context: A Champagne in Contraction
LVMH's relative resilience should be read against a region under genuine pressure. The CIVC set available yields for 2025 at just 9,000 kg/ha — the lowest in the modern era outside of the pandemic year — to combat oversupply, with regional stocks sitting at 1.28 billion bottles, or roughly 4.8 years' supply. Competitors fared less well: Vranken-Pommery Monopole saw consolidated sales fall 10.5% in 2024 to EUR 302.9 million, while Pernod Ricard's champagne brands — Mumm and Perrier-Jouët — remain a footnote in its EUR 10.96 billion empire.
Laurent-Perrier proved the exception, climbing to third-largest champagne group with premium cuvées now representing 41.9% of turnover — further evidence that the market is bifurcating sharply between prestige and everything else.
The lesson from LVMH's 2025 performance is one the luxury sector knows well: in uncertain times, the strongest brands don't just survive — they concentrate market power. Whether that resilience holds against a potential 200% tariff wall remains, as they say in Reims, to be seen.
