Winemakers find Trump’s rates hard to swallow

Burgundy is one of the most prestigious wine regions in France, and the US is the largest export market. But now Donald Trump’s rates are in danger of praising European wine from the American market.

Squeezed in cold mud under a thin spring, vineyard employee élodie bonet cuts off unwanted vine shoots with her fingers and pruning blinker.

“We want the vine to put all its energy into the shoots that have the flowers where the grapes will grow,” she explains.

I leave Élodie who makes its way through the rows of vines and walk to the house and winery in the Burgundian village of Morey-Saint-Denis, where I meet owner and winemaker Cécile Tremblay.

She takes me to her cellar to taste some of her valued red wines, standing between the oak barrels and old bottles with labels weathered by mold and age.

They have names that ensure that wine lovers become weak on the knees-nuits-Saint-Georges, Echezeaux, Vosne-Romanée, Clos-Vougeot and Chapelle-Chambertin.

Mrs. Tremblay sells more than half of her wine abroad, under the name Domaine Cecile Tremblay.

“For the United States it is about 10% of production; it is a major production for me!” She says.

After a 200% threat on alcohol from Europe, Donald Trump set a rate of 20% on almost all European Union products on 5 April.

Four days later he reduced this to 10%, with the threat that he would increase it again to 20%in July, depending on how trade negotiations are in it. And now Trump threatens a future rate of 50% on all EU goods.

I ask Mrs. Tremblay if she is worried. “Yes, sure,” she says, “as everyone is.”

But that is all she will say about this. French winemakers are currently running on eggshells, afraid of saying everything that the situation could worsen.

Maybe their representatives will rise more? I get in my car and drive to one of her neighbors – François Labet. He is the president of the Burgundy Wine Board, which represents the 3,500 winemakers of this region.

“The US is the largest export market for the entire region. Certainly,” he tells me. “They are the largest volume and the largest in value.”

And until the re -election of Donald Trump, the American market was booming. While French wines and spirits export worldwide fell by 4% last yearThe sale of Burgundian wines to the US was sharp.

In volume terms, There were 16% more than From 2024 to 20.9 million bottles. This was worth € 370 million ($ 415 million; £ 312 million) in income, 26.2% higher than in 2023.

Mr Labet says that the US is good for about a quarter of Burgundy’s wine export last year.

Burgundy’s reputation abroad is mainly because of its red wines, made from the celebrated Pinot Noir grapes. Indeed, in the English -speaking world, Burgundy is not so much a wine as a color.

The French word for the same color is Bordeaux; Show that they know more about their wine, because although Bordeaux wines are usually red, two-thirds of Burgundy is actually white.

These are mainly made from the Chardonnay grapes. Chablis, one of the best known examples, is extremely popular in the US.

Burgundy also produces an increasingly successful sparkling wine, called Crémant de Bourgogne, and a small amount of rosé.

All this is good for Burgundy, because although general red wine consumption continues to fall, White is holding and sparkling goes up.

Also, according to Mr Labet, the red that come from Burgundy, are the friendly consumers who want more and more often, because they are usually lighter than Reds in New World.

“What is interesting to see is that there is a strong awe of what we call the Big Reds, made in the US. Wines with a lot of alcohol, outdated in new wood.”

Less sun and lower temperatures in Burgundy, even with climate change, means less sugar in the grapes and lower alcohol content.

Mr Labet remembers that Donald Trump struck European wine for 18 months of his first presidency with an import rate of 25% during a dispute about airlines.

“We were hostages of that situation and it really influenced our sale to the US. We had a decrease of approximately 50% of our exports to the US.”

Regarding the current Trump rate of 10%, he predicts that French wine producers and US traders will split the costs of the new import duties between them to maintain sales.

But what will the impact if Trump decides in July to decide to increase the rate for all European Union exports to 20%, as he has threatened to do? “We will go back to the situation of 2019 in which the market was almost stopped,” says Mr Labet.

For French wines in general it can be even worse.

“When President Trump increased the import duties by 25% for a year and a half of his first mandate, we quickly lost around $ 600 million (£ 450 million),” says Jerome Bauer, president of the French national wines and spirit confederation.

“But then Champagne was not admitted, and neither of them were more than 14 degrees of alcohol. So you can see the scale of the threat today.”

The solution that Mr Bauer is is free trade. No rates. But you would expect that he says that, given that France and Europe have a big trade surplus with the US when it comes to wines and spirits.

More surprising is perhaps the opinion of his American competitors in California and Oregon, who, you may think, would open something special to celebrate.

“This looks terrible from our perspective. We don’t like it,” says Rex Stoltz, vice-president of industrial relationships at Napa Valley Vintners, who represents 540 wineries in the sunny slopes of the most famous Wine region of California.

“Wine is an international product. Even here in the Napa Valley, our wineries mainly get their corks from Portugal, and their oak barrels, an important part of wine making, from France.

Mr Stoltz adds: “They are already expensive and the potential is that they become more expensive.”

Trade wars also cut both sides. He says that the rates against Canada have a devastating impact on the export of American wine.

“Canada is the most important export market for Californian wines and one of the best export markets for Napa Valley wines. At the moment there are zero Napa Valley wines on the shelves of stores in Canada.

“They have removed all American alcohol drinks from their shopping shelves!”

Mr Stoltz adds: “We just want to compete on a level playing field with our friends and neighbors around the world. That is our question and that is our hope.”