Trump, tariffs and what they mean for your wine drinking experiences
Beyond the price hikes
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I don’t need to tell you what tariffs will do to the cost of imported wine in America. Anyone who took a single math class can work that one out.
I also don’t need to tell you that there are arguably more important tariffs to worry about. Foodstuffs is one. Clothing is another. Things needed for the most basic of living.
But because I work in the industry, I’m especially sorry for what tariffs mean for wine. Drinking it. Making it. And most importantly, experiencing it.
Because wine tariffs speak to something bigger than a higher price tag on your weekly Cabernet Sauvignon. It speaks to the heart of what wine really is. Not just a commodity to lubricate your Friday nights, but something that connects humans around the world. Something with links to agriculture, history, culture and people.
A word of warning: I’m going to be unapologetically romantic and misty-eyed about wine today.
First thing first — tariffs won’t only affect imported wines
When Trump wrote that an alcohol tariff will be “great for the wine and Champagne businesses in the US” he made a big assumption. That people will trade their imported wines for domestic ones (but no domestic Champagne, Donald, tut tut, someone wasn’t listening in PDO class).
Presumably this is because Trump believes domestic wines will become the better choice, both in value and availability.
But American wine isn’t made in isolation. It requires equipment. Barrels. Glass. If that comes from elsewhere — as much of it does — that’s going to push prices northward.
Eric Asimov, wine critic for the New York Times, puts it best:
Most American winemakers also rely on imported products, like barrels, corks, bottles and farming and production equipment. Prices for those goods will also rise because of the tariffs. Those hikes will be reflected in the price of the wine.
Not to mention supply and demand. America drinks 33.3 million hectolitres of wine and produces 25.2 million. Even if every US-made wine stayed in the country, there is an 8.1 million hectolitre shortfall. Even if tariffs encourage abstinence, it’s unlikely the gap will close completely.
So domestic wine is about to get more expensive.
Whichever way you cut it, all wine is about to rise in price. All of which is going to change the perception of wine and its place in the US consciousness.
Wine isn’t just a drink, it’s a culture
And importantly, a link to the outside world.
It’s France. Germany. Portugal. South Africa. Australia. Chile. Georgia. 8000 years of history and heritage. Something that links hundreds of countries and millions of people.
Tariffs are specifically designed to bring the focus back to America. Or as Trump put it in a recent rally:
It’s going to bring our country’s businesses back that left us.
But this isn’t how wine works. Yes, there are domestic wineries, but they only represent one small part of the wine world — around 12% of total volume.
The rest of it is that window to another world. Different countries and cultures.
This window is the reason I got into wine in the first place. Wine was a link to countries that, culturally speaking, I felt more comfortable in.
The enoteca culture of Italy, where wine is poured and enjoyed casually. The eating and drinking habits of the Spanish — late and joyful, and always with a glass of wine.
No pomp, no fuss.
Or winemaking in France where casse-croute — the mid-morning snack — is taken in the vineyards surrounded by gnarly vines and even gnarlier vignerons.
Wine is a whole world. One very different from the way I had previously experienced it. Growing up, wine was little more than alcoholic grape juice. A cheap way to get a buzz, if you, as I did, favoured three quid per litre bottles of Soave.
Now, it’s so much more than that.
The way I talk about wine might sound overly romantic, but for those of us working in this facet of the industry, wine is romantic. And we use that romanticism to enthuse our clients. Boring-ass tasting notes will never sell as well as some crazy story about some eccentric winemaker deep in the wilds of France.
But that could be lost if tariffs reduce imported wines entering the US market.
That counts double for the little guys. The ones doing the good, interesting work…
Tariffs will hit the small guys the hardest
I’ve worked in — and advocated for — small, independent wineries my whole wine career, because small wineries are where the fun is at.
These are the wineries with the stories. The ones with the capacity to look after their land and leave something intact for the next generation. They are the interesting part of the wine world. The side that elevates wine from a commodity to a culture.
Yet as is the case in all wars, it’s the little guys with the fewest resources that will lose the most.
Small wineries tend to be represented by small, independent distributors. These are not the ones with deep pockets ready to shoulder the extra financial burden.
The same goes for small bars, wine stores and restaurants. The National Association of Wine Retailers recently released a statement to that effect:
We anticipate that wine importers, wine wholesalers, wine retailers, and domestic wine producers, along with the companies that support the industry, will be hit harder this time around, leading to significant revenue reductions, layoffs, and business closings.
These layoffs won’t just happen in America, they could happen in the rest of the winemaking world, too.
In music, they say you’ve made it if you break into America. The same can be said for wine. America is a white whale — wineries want to be represented there because the US has an incredibly exciting wine industry.
Not to mention the thirstiest clients — it’s the biggest wine market in the world.
If American distribution either significantly reduces or disappears, that can ruin smaller wineries. And without small places representing the interesting side of wine, what are you left with?
Where’s the fun?
In broad strokes, the wine industry straddles two worlds. One is a commodified, commercial entity designed to pump out alcoholic juice as cheaply as possible.
The other world — the one I inhabit — is the one where wine is all these things I’ve talked about here. Culture. People. History.
Fun.
One of my biggest concerns with tariffs on wine is the push away from the cultural and towards the commodified. There is a financial line where this happens, and if people have to trade down, at some point, they will cross that line.
And there is no fun in that.
Wine already occupies a precarious position in our modern world. It doesn’t need more reasons to become little more than a bulk-made commodity.
It needs reasons to further occupy that cultural, joyful space.
Tariffs are not the way to do that. And all I can say right now is, I hope they don’t do the job they are designed to do.
For everyone’s sake.
It's very easy to forget, dismiss and live without ever bothering to acknowledge that while he (supposedly) never drinks alcohol the current leader of the U.S. does have a wine brand out of Charlottesville, Virginia.
The sparkling and Chardonnay have their fans. I would not have known about that dedicated fan base (buying cases shipped to their homes) if I hadn't met one by random happenstance. I was enjoying a perfectly decent conversation about late harvest wines when somehow this new person veered onto those Charlottesville wines.
Hey lovely read and goes without saying that I completely agree with you, especially the romanticism!