Champagne shipments to the UK are rising, the Champagne Bureau revealed earlier this week, but interestingly so are sales in China.

In the wake of a 16.3 per cent increase in champagne shipments to the UK, president of the Commission Communication and Appellation at the CIVC Bruno Paillard told the Drinks Business that sales volumes in China have also risen by 90 per cent compared with 2009's figures.

However, he clarified: "China is clearly an important market, but it's still a very new market – it's not yet ingrained in Chinese consumption habits for people to drink Champagne, so sales are progressing rapidly percentage wise, but still with fairly low volumes."

He added that there are no plans whatsoever to expand the area of the Champagne region, although some villages excluded in the 1927 map are going to be reintegrated.

Recently, managing director of Bollinger UK Andrew Hawes told the Guardian that he was "pleasantly surprised" by the growth in shipments to Britain.