article_snippet.sent: Sales bubbled along rather slowly, and by 2009 we were still only consuming just over two million bottles a year.
article_snippet.sent: So what’s behind the remarkable rise of this once humble sparkling wine?
article_snippet.sent: — the Jubilee, the Olympic Games and a Royal Wedding — where cheap bubbles were called for.
article_snippet.sent: Suddenly, supermarkets began to see supermarkets sales soar and started clearing space on the shelves: it was time to take this loveable sparkling wine seriously.
article_snippet.sent: First, ’s most famous sparkling export — champagne, from a region in northern France which sells nine million bottles in Britain each year.
article_snippet.sent: Not many of the one million bottles produced each year find their way on to our shelves, as most is consumed in Italy.
highlights_snippet.sent: UK sales were £181.8 million compared with £141.3 million for champagne .