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Tariffs got you down? How to substitute European wines with American alternatives

Gin and vodka aren’t the only alcohols that will feel the pain of a 200% tariff on European-made products — so will your favorite bottles of Bordeaux and Chianti.

Wine, which already dealt with an 8% drop in US sales last year, was hit with another blow this week when President Donald Trump threatened another round of tariffs set to go into effect in April.

A “vast majority will struggle to manage these added expenses,” Francis Creighton, CEO of the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA), said in a statement. “At the end of the day, these tariffs if implemented won’t just hurt our industry — they will directly raise prices for American consumers.”

Imported wine and spirits encompass 35% of revenue of all US sales in the alcohol market, meaning that all aspects of cocktails and wines ordered at restaurants or purchased at retailers will “rise significantly” if the tariffs go into effect, the trade organization warned.

The “rising costs will cause some consumers to stay at home, hurting the bartenders, servers and other bar and restaurant workers who depend on customer traffic for tips and shift hours,” Creighton said.

Glasses of wine are served at a rooftop bar. - Shuran Huang/The Washington Post/Getty Images
Glasses of wine are served at a rooftop bar. - Shuran Huang/The Washington Post/Getty Images

American alternatives

If tariffs are implemented, drinkers might have to shift their allegiance to American-made wines.

“I’m sure some (wine) purists would disagree with me, but I definitely think that almost anything you can find in Europe, you can find a great equivalent here in the United States,” Allison Luvera, co-founder and CEO of California-based Juliet Wine, told CNN.

One reason is America’s diverse climate and soils, she said.

“When you have a country as big as ours, with so much diversity of where we can produce wine, inevitably you’re going to find pockets that match the great wine-growing regions in Europe,” said Luvera.

For example, during the “Judgement of Paris” competition in 1976, wines from Napa Valley, California, won both the red and white categories, beating legendary chateaux and domaines from Bordeaux and Burgundy in a blind taste test. Since then, American equivalents of red Burgundy wines produced in eastern France have risen in reputation.

Drinkers looking for a similar to a red Burgundy and white Burgundy, should look for a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, respectively. Luvera said there’s “absolutely standout regions” in the US that make wines “similar in style and profile to the French counterparts” — for example, the Willamette Valley in Oregon, specifically Eola-Amity Hills, which are “putting out wines that rival some of the best stuff coming out of France.”

A worker pushes a wine barrel into a storage facility at Hunnicutt Wine Co. in St. Helena, California. - Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A worker pushes a wine barrel into a storage facility at Hunnicutt Wine Co. in St. Helena, California. - Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In California, the Russian River Valley in Sonoma and Santa Rita Hills in Santa Barbara in particular have “similarities between climate and some of the West Coast wine-growing regions” with Burgundy, France, Luvera said.