How have tariffs changed the way you buy wine?

Which wines? Pre-tariff and post-tariff price too if you know?

Yes. It’s more readily available and cheaper now, here in Europe :clown_face:
Sorry, couldn’t help myself. All kidding aside it’s a bummer, but I know you’re all well stocked up.
Hoping for the best for all winemakers to not suffer too much over this.

What’s iDeal doing now with the tariffs in place? I bought from iDeal a lot, but haven’t since the tariffs kicked. Curious what the ā€œadditionalā€ charges are currently.

The most recent ā€œNo Thanksā€ have been my two Loire favorites — Boudignon and Guiberteau. One of my sources for Guiberteau said they’re passing on bringing them in at all due to increased pricing due to tariffs – I know I asked what pricing would have been, but don’t recall the numbers — I do recall choking on air when I heard it, though. Luckily, my other source still has good pricing on the range, but for the Carmes — and they cited tariffs as the cause.

My Boudignon source has imposed pricing increases of $30 on Hutte, Fremine, and Francoise, which I decided I’m not willing to pay – when I exhaled in exasperated fashion, they replied by saying something along the lines of ā€œYeah, man, the tariffs are starting to hit; it sucks.ā€. I’m desperately hoping I find more palatable pricing elsewhere, but so far no dice.

I’m taking this as a kick in the pants to wholesale slow purchasing in favor of drinking down the cellar.

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They are offering free long term storage to US customers until further notice. I’ve purchased a few things from them, but going back and forth on whether or not I want to ship anything and eat the tariff. Might just wait it out and hope for the best.

I’m kinda nuts.
I am moving forward, in typical rhythm, basically eating the tariffs out of solidarity with both growers and clients. Most of my pricing has been on par or 5-10% higher with last year. It isn’t the time for price increases, and isn’t the time to think only of one’s self interest.
This too shall pass.
By the way, the 2023 JP Guyon offer is out (disclaimer, I disclaim my disclaimer that I import Guyon). Insanely good wines.

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Nuts indeed…in a good way.

I mostly buy US wines in the US and European wines when I’m in Europe. Not ideal, but it’s become my workaround.

Expected tariffs changed my liquor buying behavior in that I stocked up a bit more than I otherwise would have on some Scotch, Cognac, and Armagnac back in February when the writing was on the wall.

With wine, not so much change as I’ve tried to drastically cut back my buying anyway, due to age and an overflowing cellar, so that has had the much greater impact.

I’ve still bought a few annual purchases other than in the categories I no longer buy due to my age, and some of those are US wines and some are European and on the latter the prices have mostly been within reason of prior vintages, thanks to the efforts of merchants like Robert, and perhaps the producers as well. Some other annual purchases I haven’t yet seen offered, so I’m not sure what’s going on with them. I haven’t seen any of my favorites quoted at substantially higher prices (whether due to exchange rates or tariffs), it’s all been either within reason or I haven’t seen an offer so maybe it’s in the works or maybe the merchant decided not to import it because they couldn’t make the price work, I don’t know.

Since the tariffs began, btw, all of the European wines I’ve bought have been wines on which I had the post-tariff price quoted to me. The biggest category where I ever buy on a pre-tariff price with the risk of tariffs on me is Bdx futures but I had already decided that '22 was my last vintage (due to my age) other than the birth years of grandchildren. I bought a few '23s I’m at risk on (before the election obviously) and maybe a quarter of my '22s still haven’t arrived, but didn’t buy any '24s, because I had a grandchild born in '23 and not in '24. I’ll have to decide what to do about '25, because the second one came along this year!

That is a question I ask myself regularly, and Nancy is also curious about.

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Thanks for data points.

My cellar is in the growth phase so I am still buying. I have reduced retail purchases and replaced them with either auction purchase or secondary market/acquired cellar purchases where the wine is already stateside. It is more tedious but is helping keep costs reasonable.

Overall I have found better deals in less popular but still classic vintages in Bordeaux, like 2014, 2008, etc.

I have definitely curbed my buying in Europe but I’m thinking of buying and actually picking up in Europe when I travel and bringing it back on my way home. I’ll just have to be selective with my purchases, otherwise I will continue to buy at auction and backfill.

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Yeah. I assume things will only get worse before they get better, as stores’ pre-tariffs inventories got sold-off.

For me it’s really not about the actual tariff on wine, it’s about the general economy and tariffs that are elsewhere.

If I have to pay thousands more for a car (which I need) than previously I’m not much in the mood to keep buying any wine when I have a full cellar.

I’ve been learning fast that there isn’t any wine I just have to aquire.
There will be plenty of back filling and excellent future vintages to come should our world return to predictable.

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Because it’s hard to stop buying wine after doung it for 30 years.