(Decanter) - Champagne has seen its global growth trajectory dented after fewer people popped corks in the UK following the country's EU referendum, show preliminary figures.

According to tradition, Vincent Perrin, general director of the Comité Champagne, took the stage at the weekend festival Saint Vincent de l’Archiconférie, to give a first overview of 2016 Champagne sales.

Perrin announced that 306 million bottles of Champagne bottles were shipped in 2016 and the estimated turnover was 4.5 billion euros, versus 4.75bn in 2015. Figures are preliminary at this stage.

While the presumed turnover will be the second largest ever, the total amount of bottles sold is the third lowest sales volume in the last 10 years, after 2009 and 2013.

‘In 2016 we lost three million bottles in France, and the same amount in the UK,’ Perrin said.

The 9% volume drop in the UK was almost entirely due to Brexit, according to Perrin. ‘When we forecasted the sales volume in July, we had no inkling the market would shrink at such a pace.’

Companies who have been selling in euros have been particularly hard hit, it is believed.