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Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's 200% Tariffs Could Devastate the American Wine Industry
This story is from an installment of The Oeno Files, our weekly insider newsletter to the world of fine wine. Sign up here. In the latest fallout from a tit-for-tat trade war that has markets reeling, the United States wine industry is bracing for the effects of 200 percent tariffs on European wine and spirits imports. In short, the U.S. placed a 25 percent tariff on metal imported from other countries; the E.U. struck back by implementing 50 percent tariffs on a variety of goods from the U.S. that includes bourbon; and on March 13 President Trump posted on Truth Social that if the tariff were not removed immediately, the U.S. would place a 200 percent tariff on all wine, Champagne, and spirits coming from the E.U. While both sides have paused their tariffs until the middle of April, which may allow for some negotiation, the threat still looms, leaving uncertainty on both sides of the Atlantic. More from Robb Report Super-Prime Home Sales Skyrocketed Around the Globe in Late 2024, a New Report Says This New Residential Development in Mexico Is All About Surf, Golf, and Wellness Maserati Just Unveiled a Program That Lets You Design Your Own One-of-a-Kind Sports Car On March 18, the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance (USWTA), an industry group that represents thousands of family-owned businesses across the United States, posted a statement on Facebook and sent an email to its members to 'halt all shipments of wine, spirits, & beer from the E.U.,' because the risk of tariffs was currently too high. Signed by alliance founder Ben Aneff, who is a partner at New York City's Tribeca Wine Merchants, the letter explained that there was no guarantee of an exception for 'goods in transit.' Previously, the USWTA had distributed a letter for members to send to commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, treasury secretary Scott Bessent, and trade representative Jamieson Greer, asking them to consider the destruction that increased wine tariffs would cause across the entire wine sector. Aneff tells Robb Report that although tens of thousands of letters have been sent, 'there has not yet been a hearing or open comment portal to allow normal businesses to comment on a tariff issue.' However, members of the alliance have been meeting with members of Congress every week, and Aneff states that once Congress members learn about the downstream businesses supported by wine, they 'always understand how bad wine tariffs are for our country.' We reached out to a wide network of owners and CEOs at wine importers across the country, almost all of whom declined to respond to questions about tariffs, citing the sensitive political nature and the need to communicate with employees, suppliers, and customers before commenting publicly. However, Don Opici, CEO of Opici Wines & Spirits, said the proposed tariffs would destroy business in the U.S. for the affected brands, who would have to seek alternative markets for their wine. While he has no intention of firing or laying off employees in the near future, Opici says, 'I can imagine companies being forced to do that if their business collapses.' Wine shops and restaurants would have to adjust their inventory, and European wines 'would come off wine lists and lose shelf placement and floor space at retail,' he says. Jenny Lefcourt, president and cofounder of Jenny & Francois Selections, an importer specializing in natural wine, wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times in January 2020 about the wine tariffs that had been implemented late in the previous year; the article has been heavily re-shared on social media in the past two weeks. Citing the domino effect of wine distributors (the middlemen between importers and retailers) being unable to supply their customers with affordable wine, she wrote, 'Trucking, warehouse, and shipping companies will all be affected. Office assistants, truck drivers, forklift operators, logistics coordinators, bookkeepers, and restaurant chefs and servers could all see their jobs in peril.' There is no evidence to suggest that American wine drinkers who enjoy glasses from France, Italy, Spain, Austria, or Germany are suddenly going to switch their preference to nothing but American wine. We are not talking about widgets being stamped out in factories that could operate anywhere on Earth. 'The world's greatest wines are inherently tied to their origins, whether a singular parcel in Burgundy or an iconic Napa hillside, each bottle tells a story that cannot be replicated elsewhere,' says Lauren McPhate, another partner at Tribeca Wine Merchants. With an inventory that boasts 75 percent European wine, McPhate says the distributors who represent the best U.S. domestic wines all rely on the sale of imported wines, too, so tariffs would affect her suppliers as well. 'A 200 percent tariff would be devastating to any business in the U.S. wine industry, and it would fundamentally alter the landscape of great restaurants and fine wine retail,' she says. Heidi Turzyn, co-owner of retail shop Beaupierre Wine & Spirits, has begun stockpiling some customer favorites from France, which she realizes is not a long-term strategy. 'We're a very small store, so we don't have the finances to stock up on a lot,' she says. With a clientele that is heavily into European wine, Turzyn doesn't see an alternative business model if those wines are out of the price range for her shop or her customers. Peter Cecere and Marni Halasa, proprietors of the Purple Tongue wine bar in Hell's Kitchen, are actively sourcing a variety of wines from domestic and new world producers, but they are both living with a constant feeling of unease in the current news cycle. 'The sudden imposition of these tariffs has left us feeling as though we've lost some control over our business's direction. We're committed to weathering this storm, but it's undeniably a challenging situation,' Cecere tells Robb Report. Despite the president's claim to the contrary, tariffs will also hurt many of the people who grow grapes and make wine within the United States. 'We have a very successful distributor in the middle part of the country who sells our wines but also sells a good bit of imported wine,' says Adam Lee, owner and winemaker at Clarice Wine Company in California. That distributor currently has three containers of European wine en route to our shores. 'If the tariffs were implemented today at the 200 percent level, then they would owe an additional $600,000 in taxes,' Lee says, which would make it impossible for the distributor to buy any of his or another American winery's bottles. He also worries about tariffs on other products from Europe such as oak barrels, bottles, or cork. 'French oak is a different species of oak than American oak,' he says. 'A vintner cannot simply replace one with the other without changing the entire profile of his or her wine.' Is it all bad news if 200 percent tariffs on European wine are put into place? Every cloud has a silver lining. Aneff corrected himself after saying there is 'no benefit whatsoever' to the tariffs. 'I guess that's not entirely true. U.S. tariffs on E.U. wines would be great for Canada and China, who could then buy E.U. wines for less money. But they are terrible for the United States,' he said. Pretty much the entire United States wine industry agrees. Do you want access to rare and outstanding reds from Napa Valley? Join the Robb Report 672 Wine Club today. Best of Robb Report Why a Heritage Turkey Is the Best Thanksgiving Bird—and How to Get One 9 Stellar West Coast Pinot Noirs to Drink Right Now The 10 Best Wines to Pair With Steak, From Cabernet to Malbec Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Lifestyle
- Yahoo
Meet the Young Aristocrat That's Making Brunello Cool Again
This story is from an installment of The Oeno Files, our weekly insider newsletter to the world of fine wine. Sign up here. Thirty-year-old vintner Santiago Cinzano has just launched a new estate called Conti Marone Cinzano, where he is pioneering an unorthodox viticultural philosophy: selecting the best plot in any given vintage to create his wine, Lot.1 Brunello di Montalcino. Due to increasing climatic unpredictability, the plot changes every year and is selected during the ripening season based on the year's conditions and their influence on the vines. After realizing that members of his age group prefer other styles of wine to age-worthy Brunello with potentially hefty tannins, Cinzano launched his project with an eye toward making Brunello cool again. More from Robb Report $2.2 Million Worth of Ancient Artifacts Trafficked Through New York Are Returning to Greece and Italy Spring-Break Travel Prices Have Hit a Record High This Year How to Sell a Bottle of Wine From Your Collection The 10th generation of a winemaking dynasty whose surname is more closely associated with Vermouth and Asti Spumante than red wine, Cinzano notes that his friends prefer to drink styles such as Beaujolais, Trousseau from Jura, and crisp, fresh reds from the slopes of Mount Etna rather than what they consider an overly tannic red that may not be ready to drink for another 10 years. 'Don't get me wrong—I know that today Brunello's reputation is at an all-time high,' Cinzano says. 'But people my age want to drink cool wines. Montalcino, Brunello, today, they are not cool. They're prestigious. They're high end. They're historical. They're classic. But Brunello is not considered cool by 25- to 30-year-olds.' Ten years ago, Cinzano's father, Count Francesco Marone Cinzano, ceded 10 percent of the land owned by his Montalcino wine estate Col d'Orcia to Santiago and his brother to begin a project of their own. At that time, this portion of the estate had been planted with fields of grain, olive groves, and forests, which Santiago replaced with Sangiovese planted in bush-vine style. The elder Cinzano had sold the remaining 50 percent of his family's eponymous Vermouth and sparkling-wine brand when his own father died in a car accident in 1989, and his son's first line item in starting a new project was to use his family name on the bottle, which was easier said than done. The sale of Cinzano was a painful end to an illustrious family legacy dating back to 1757, and while Santiago wanted to reclaim the name, multiple legal consultants and attorneys told him it would be impossible. Unbeknown to Francesco, Santiago set up a meeting in Milan with Luca Garavoglia, chairman of Campari Group, the current owner of Cinzano. 'I presented this project, and he told me, 'As long as Campari owns Cinzano, I will never make your life difficult. Send me a bottle for Christmas. Please, use your family name, feel free,'' he says. And thus Conti Marone Cinzano was born, for which Santiago often uses the shorthand CMC. With his family name back in play, it was important to him to take a personal, intimate approach to every aspect of winemaking from vineyard to bottle, including his and Francesco's signature on the label and hand-numbering each bottle. Because his 10-year-old vineyard is not producing grapes of the quality necessary for such a special project, CMC Lot.1 is currently reliant on the vines of Col d'Orcia, where 272 acres are planted at 500 to almost 1,500 feet above sea level with many different expositions and multiple soil types. The vineyard has been broken down into micro-parcels so that the team can understand each and every plot as deeply as possible. Working closely with enologist Dr. Donato Lanati of Giacomo Conterno and Giuseppe Mascarello fame, Cinzano's Lot.1 is a single-vineyard wine, but it will not be from the same plot each vintage. 'In the past eight years we've seen the warmest year on record, the driest year on record, and the rainiest autumn on record,' Santiago says. 'We are seeing such a level of climatic variability and unpredictability that the concept of having to rely on a single plot is becoming less and less reliable.' With that in mind, Lanati analyzes grapes samples just after veraison, which indicates the onset of ripening. He is looking for aromatic precursors that at that point cannot be smelled or tasted in the grape; they are released only during fermentation. Lanati examines the grapes prior to full ripening and can predict the evolution of aromas, thereby choosing the best plots weeks before harvest and then narrowing it down to just one. 'When we are harvesting that parcel, we go even further, and it's a selection of the best bunches from that already selected parcel,' he says. 'The parameters allow me to do very short maceration and very delicate pump overs to have a fresh, approachable wine, but at the same time I can extract a lot of aromas.' Seeking to release a wine that's age-worthy yet still approachable, Santiago and Lanati's goal is a 'Brunello that even in its first year of release has tannins that are extremely integrated, extremely silky, and extremely round,' Lanati says. Cinzano's 2019 Lot.1 is derived from what he calls a 'textbook vintage.' Sourced from the estate's almost 40-year-old Canneto vineyard, the wine benefited from 'near perfect equilibrium' in its soil composition. 'The limestone, clay, and sandy components have great balance, which in a vintage like 2019, where you didn't need the most draining soil or the most retentive soil, you go for a very balanced soil,' he says. The plot's southern exposure and ample sunlight brought on perfect phenolic ripeness, which is necessary to make great wine. The entire lot was aged in a single large wooden tank called a botte and was transferred to bottle in August 2023. Conti Marone Cinzano 2019 Lot.1 Brunello di Montalcino is deep garnet in the glass and has a bouquet of cranberry, pomegranate, cherry, and vanilla with touches of saddle leather and tobacco leaf. Flavors of ripe summer cherry and dried cranberry are wrapped in brilliant acidity and polished tannins shot through with a bold vein of minerality. Shimmering acidity lingers into the drawn-out finish. If this wine doesn't make Brunello cool again, we wonder if anything will. Do you want access to rare and outstanding reds from Napa Valley? Join the Robb Report 672 Wine Club today. Best of Robb Report Why a Heritage Turkey Is the Best Thanksgiving Bird—and How to Get One 9 Stellar West Coast Pinot Noirs to Drink Right Now The 10 Best Wines to Pair With Steak, From Cabernet to Malbec Click here to read the full article.
