Sparkling wine sales have grown by 10.9% this year – no other alcohol has shown such a rate. And there are no statistics for December yet – the main month for “bubbles”.

“Sales of sparkling wine have been growing steadily over the past four years,” clarifies Vladimir Vasyutkin, Development Director of GRADUS. “Most Russians prefer inexpensive sparkling wine of domestic production.”

European drinks have begun to lose ground primarily due to their cost, which was affected by both import duties and the exchange rate. If a bottle of Italian prosecco used to cost 600 rubles, now you have to try to find one for 900. The lower price limit for domestic sparkling wine is 350–400 rubles per bottle (there will be no unpleasant surprises in it, experts say). There are also much more expensive options.

"But it's better to buy ours for 1,000 rubles than imported ones for 2,000," says Vadim Drobiz, head of the Center for Research of Federal and Regional Alcohol Markets. "It's not about patriotism, but about the fact that domestic products in this price category will be no worse in all respects."

The fact that we often underestimate our own producers is also noted by Alexander Panasyuk, deputy director of the All-Russian Research Institute of Brewing, Soft Drinks and Wine Industry: "Our "Soviet Champagne" was successfully supplied to the West, but it was especially loved in Germany. And why not? An acceptable price and high quality - selected wine materials from Kuban and Moldova were used for production."

Today, according to him, the technology has remained the same - classic bottled, when secondary fermentation (fermentation) occurs in the bottle, and not in the tank. But the process is much more automated. "And this is not bad, because the machine makes mistakes less often than a person," the technologist believes.

As for wine materials, now producers give more preference to floral aromas, whereas in Soviet times they stuck to the classics and paid attention to the tones of aging. But the sweetness in sparkling wine, which is produced now, has decreased. In the Soviet one, as the technologist notes, the sugar content was simply prohibitive - up to 10% was allowed.