Asian champagne drinkers help to lift flagging market The British market, the world's biggest importer of champagne with 10pc of total exports, also continued to struggle. Despite the Diamond Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth and the Olympic Games in London, champagne sales volumes were down 7pc at the end of October, following a 3pc fall in 2011. "Despite the drop in volumes, champagne will still have one of the three or four best performances in history," said Bruno Paillard, chief executive of Lanson BCC, the world's second-biggest champagne group. Sales of champagne - which by definition can only be produced in the northern French region of the same name - peaked at 339m bottles in 2007 for record industry revenue of €4.5bn. The market is dominated by luxury group LVMH, which owns the Dom Perignon, Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Ruinart and Krug brands. Specialist champagne-makers also include Laurent Perrier, Vranken and drinks group Pernod Ricard's Mumm and Perrier-Jouet brands. In France, the top sales market for champagne accounting for 52pc of volumes, demand was down 5pc by October, with no sign of the trend improving. "This year has been tough, with a fraught economic situation in France and Europe," said Thibaut Le Mailloux, spokesman for the Comite Interprofessionel des Vins de Champagne (CIVC) trade association, of the stagnant economy across most of the zone. The overall drop in Europe 10 months into the year was 6pc. The CIVC is due to publish detailed statistics for 2012 in February.