Tariff's effect on alcohol % of imported wine

This is behind a paywall, but the most notable statistic is that American imports of European wine that exceeds 14% alcohol (and is consequently not subject to the 25% October 2019 tariff) increased from $150 million a year to $434 million a year since the tariffs were instituted.

No surprise there. Tariffs have always influenced importation decisions. Normally it’s to drive domestic sourcing, but hey, European wine is European wine.

German wine has been hit hard by the tariffs. Really hard.

Chalk it up to warmer vintages. :wink:

I know that here in Canada my local shop was offered even more Hofgut Falkenstein than it normally gets. It has also been offered increased allocations of other German and Burgundian wines. These tariffs are great for me personally! Bring in the 100% tariffs!

Wrt the OP, I wonder how much of this is just increasing the alcohol on the label (within legal allowances of course) - I would assume a fair bit.

Yeah I was wondering whether producers were actually changing the wine, whether different wines were being imported, or whether producers were just modifying the label. Or some amount of all three.

My guess was that winemakers couldn’t realistically change alcohol percentages for the '19 vintage in response to the tariff but what do I know. Article stated that 2019 Cos was 14.02%; those few hundredths of a percent will probably be a meaningful profit difference for the chateau.

Do the tariffs have anything to do with the high reported alcohol percent of 2019 burgs?

I assumed that was the suggestion/insinuation.

Given that there’s a margin of error allowed on the ABV level (+/-0.5% in the EU and +/-1% in the US if the wine is over 14%) it’s easy to see how a wine that might have been legally labeled as 13.5% before would get bumped up to 14% for purposes of the tariff, all legally. In other words, it could be a reflection of tariff-influenced labels.

Altering ABV across a tariff class is not included in the allowances.

Don’t conflate the EU labeling allowance and the US tariff threshold. Declared ABV’s of 14.1, 14.2, etc. can be challenged by US customs. In which case, the producer must submit lab results.

Many of our producers proposed upping their ABV and we advised against it. Not worth the delays and the risk of the wines being sent back from whence they came.

But how many wines had, in the past been, say, 13.6% to 13.9%, but the label always said 13.5%. Is there anything illegal about having new labels printed with 14% or 14.1% if the bottles hadn’t been labeled yet? What are the odds of customs demanding lab tests?

What do you mean “not included in the allowances”? Is there some explicit rule against that?

They can put whatever they want on their label that is within .5% per the EU, but ATF is not concerned with EU regs. I can’t quote odds but I have heard that anything just above 14% is understandably a yellow flag.

This whole debate is just so idiotic. Why can’t these feuds be confined to aircraft? This seems to be getting everyone nowhere. The Euros are not likely to back off and the US isn’t going to stop supporting Boeing anytime soon. Can’t these industries fight it out directly and leave the innocent bystanders out of it? Now we are obsessing over 0.5% of alcohol in a bottle of wine. Madness.

Have there been any examples of this actually being enforced? I’d be surprised if there was anyone in customs with a hydrometer checking?

Altering description of goods to avoid a tariff is an offense that can involve seizure of the goods, suspension of ability to import and significant fines. Customs does check. It’s not systematic. It’s more random, but they check, and if they find something people are in big trouble.

This is not some situation where wine geeks get to explain it away as not a big deal…why should they care…can’t they just change the label.

I have written in depth about the issues many times in other threads, and don’t have time to do it again right now.

As for why isn’t this just confined to aircraft…again I have written that explanation. Maybe later I can find the will to do it again.

Sincerely,
Aerospace Industry Professional whose specialty is International Trade

So, if the statistics cited in the OP are not a function of wine being relabeled as having higher ABV, how is this happening?

Importers selecting more higher ABV wines to import, and selecting fewer of the lower ABV wines? Just picking producers, regions, vintages that are 14+?

I’m curious how the process works. If anyone has any insight, please share.

If this were the case, then why is so much Fentanyl coming in from China?

I don’t disagree but curious if you have seen any statistics to back it up. All of the producers I follow have sold out faster than ever.

And this past year given the changes with Rudi and at Skurnik have other things going on. Also I think some German producers sold more in Germany and elsewhere because of concerns around lower demand from the U.S.

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Ahem…random.

With German wine I was more speaking to the retail aspect. Wines that were formerly in the $18-$20 range now going over $25 which directly affects sales and also the shop’s interest in carrying those wines. I’ve had illuminating discussions with the wine buyers for three major shops, and all cut back German wine purchases by 50% or more this year, as they can’t find the right wines to fill specific niches that are key to volume sales. A fourth buyer was not so discouraged, but still specifically lamented the tariff issues on the volume wines.