California winemakers uneasy about Trump’s threat to place 200% tariff on European wine imports

Some winemakers and grape growers view Trump’s tariffs are cautiously optimistic the tariffs could revive interest in California-made wines, while others worry tariffs threaten to upend a fragile industry.

Last week, President Trump threatened to impose a jumbo 200% tariff on all wine, Champagne and other alcoholic products from the European Union, writing on social media: “This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.” But many winemakers and grape growers in California, which has the lion’s share of US wine production, view the proposal with a sense of unease. While some are cautiously optimistic the tariffs could revive interest in California-made wines, others worry tariffs threaten to upend a fragile industry already contending with faltering demand and crop destruction from recent wildfires and droughts in the state. “Even though we’re a farming family business, there’s a global link,” said John Williams, the founder of Frog’s Leap, a winery in California’s Napa Valley. “This is not good for our industry in general.” Alcoholic beverages are one of the EU’s top exports to the United States, according to EU data. Tariffs would almost certainly make European wine and other alcoholic beverages cost more for the average American ordering wine from a restaurant or shopping in their local liquor store. Trump’s 200% tariff proposal marks one more escalation in the growing trade spat between the two sides. Trump has also imposed a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum, including imports from the EU. In response, the EU announced countermeasures, including a 50% tariff on American whiskey, that will roll out in April. Williams, who has been in the wine business for 45 years, said he feared tit-for-tat tariffs would hurt wine distributors — the middlemen who purchase wine directly from producers and sell it to retailers and restaurants.