Meanwhile, following a rush to ship bottles to the US before any tariffs hit, European wineries say orders are drying up from their top customer abroad, meaning more of this year’s Merlot and Chardonnay could end up stuffed in cellars. Some of the wine might even need to be distilled into hand sanitiser.
When US President Donald Trump posted his 200% tariff threat on European wine, growers were already struggling with a secular decline in consumption so dire that France started paying farmers to uproot vines.
In Cave Héraclès, the country's biggest organic wine cooperative, over 200 stainless steel tanks about as high as six-story buildings are still brimming with last year's production, and the surrounding vines in the Occitanie region are already starting to bud again — as in the rest of Europe.
