London, Jan 3 - Champagne drinkers helped boost sales at Britain's Majestic Wine Plc by more than 8 percent over Christmas, the retailer said on Wednesday.
"Our overall sales in the UK were up just over 8 percent and champagne was twice that rate of growth," Chief Executive Tim How told Reuters.
"The biggest seller was Nicolas Feuillatte, which we were promoting," he added. "But otherwise it was the names you'd expect -- Veuve Clicquot, Bollinger, Laurent Perrier, Perrier Jouet."
Group like-for-like sales rose 4.4 percent in the last nine weeks of 2006.
Analysts at Numis Securities said the figures were as expected and Majestic's shares rose 0.4 percent to 360 pence by 0908 GMT, valuing the group at around 236 million pounds ($465 million).
British retailers have enjoyed strong Christmas trading, with department store Selfridges reporting its best ever Boxing Day sales.
Last week's Retail FootFall Index showed shopper visits to stores rose 6.9 percent on Boxing Day from a year ago, an upswing after warm weather and interest rate hikes made for poor autumn sales.
Majestic's How said people were buying better wines this year.
"We saw 25 percent growth in wines retailing at 20 pounds and above, mainly coming from Bordeaux and Burgundy," he said. "We've seen our average bottle price rise to 5.73 pounds from 5.58 this time last year."