Are you going to stop buying European tariff affected winei

I was going to, but was tempted and bought a case which if I bring over now. I have six months free storage, and will pay fees if the tariffs are still there.

No but I will be more selective on what I buy and where I buy it from.

No. I may buy less, or I may move funds toward Italian wine and Champagne, but I won’t stop buying.

There is a ton of French wine State-side to buy that landed before today.

Doubt many will notice. If they do, they can make whatever changes they want but they will pay the tariff if they want the product. Most states have a tobacco tax. The smoke has settled and fewer people are buying product on line from other states with no or lower taxes. People who want cult wines will pay exorbitant prices. If the tariff is so high nobody is buying the wine, what do you think is going to happen? Ship it back to France or lower the prices at import to stay competitive? This too shall pass.

This

I don’t plan to change my purchases…but then again, I often change my mind.

Depends on how long this will go on. It will take several months to satisfy the penalty, and by then that abundance will begin to run out.

When the prices go up, I’ll probably stop. But in a way that’s a good thing because I really don’t need any more wine.

Doubt it. Riesling should still be a great value.

I usually make my purchase decisions based on how much I want the wine versus what the cost is, so I’ll continue to do that.

If prices go up, it would therefore tend to affect some purchase decisions, but I don’t have any other particular reaction to the idea of there being higher tariffs per se.

I’m guessing the pricing won’t go up clearly and sharply the way it looks on paper. There is a lot of flexibility in wine pricing, and it’s not an essential like gasoline or electricity where people will fall in line with whatever the price is.

No. Gotta keep my verticals.

I probably will until those stateside stocks start to disappear and prices go up. hopefully this will be resolved before then, but with current political climates I don’t see that happening anytime soon. no one is able to compromise and get things done anymore.

edited to add that most of my European buys have typically been Italian anyways. hard to have picked a worse time to be planning my first trip to Burgundy (along with its high likelihood of finally going over to the Burgundy dark side)

I know of one importer who is working with their sources to relabel just above the cutoff of 14.1 % to avoid the tarriffs.

How much will retail prices go up after the tariffs? Does anyone really know? Without that information, I don’t know how to answer Mark’s question.

I’d hazard a guess of 25% on lower priced items, 10-15% on $50-100 and then there will be some profiteering on the allocated stuff that is blamed on the tariff.

I definitely expect a good amount of this. especially when it so easily falls within EU labelling laws

I have already delayed purchases. I have reached out to some stores and have asked if they will store the wine, but the response rate is weak. And the GBP has bounced back to 1.30 as well, so its a double hit in the UK (currency and need to pay storage costs).

I am still racking up purchases in the UK on certain acquisition targets. Most are champagne- so no issues there. Off vintages of Magdelaine (to give me the most awesome verticals ever) are not that expensive- so if I end up getting hit with the 25% it won’t bother me.

That said- if I were an active buyer of $200+ bottles of French wine right now, the 25% would most certainly have a strong negative impact on my buying patterns. The price run-ups have just been so huge lately- the 2016 EP jump below the first growth levels was the highest on a % basis in my lifetime. 2016 Ducru seemed a rare bird at first, but now it is turning up all over Dallas- including at a grocery store last week.

Plus auction results are softening fast. A month ago it was Italy, and now it is more widespread except in champagne which is actually on a bit of a minor tear lately.

So in the grand scheme of things I expect the tariffs will deter quite a lot of buying of newer vintages not yet imported.

Given that the next few burgundy vintages are on the warmer/easy drinking side (especially the Cote de Nuits), this is a good excuse to pare back purchases, other than from those few producers from whom I want to maintain verticals or allocations. I don’t buy new Bordeaux anyway, and Italy and champagne are unaffected, so northern Rhône may be the only decision I need to make, and there I’ve dropped some of the most expensive producers already (no more Chave).