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French luxury giant LVMH plans to purchase a stake in a popular French drink maker for its nonalcoholic sparkling wine for $100 per bottle.
The 30% investment in the sparkling wine brand, French Bloom, comes as an increasing number of consumers are looking for low and no-alcohol drinks.
French Bloom, which was launched in 2021, has “doubled” its business sales every year since its launch and is expected to sell about 500,000 bottles of champagne this year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“There’s a huge demand for quality products without alcohol,” said David Serre, Moët Hennessy’s strategy chief to the Journal. “It’s been clear to us for a few years, but we hadn’t found the right opportunity.”
French Bloom, which sells a wide variety of sparkling wines, includes sparkling white and sparkling rose. Its latest addition, La Cuvée Vintage, which launched in 2022, is a nonalcoholic fizz, that’s sold at $109 a bottle.
To remove alcohol from its wines, French Bloom uses a “exclusive” method called cold-vacuum distillation at a low temperature, which involves the wine being gently heated, according to Sommeliers International.
For LVMH’s Moët Hennessy, the wine division is seeking to give consumers more “appealing alternatives” for non-alcholohic drinks, The Journal reports. Some of LVMH’s other wine brands include Château d’Yquem and Château Cheval Blanc.
LVMH’s investment in French Bloom marks the brand’s first move into the nonalcoholic space. Making it one of the many brands in the booze sector – following Heineken’s first nonalcoholic beer, Heineken 0.0 in 2017 and Guinness (DEO+4.43%)’ in 2020.