Anyone following the on-again, off-again saga of President Trump’s tariff threats against seemingly everyone in the world probably knows by now that tariffs won’t be good for grocery prices. He is making a particularly wrongheaded move with his new threat to put tariffs on European spirits and protect American “Champagne.” The announcement came through the president’s personal social media network, Truth Social, in which he responded to a new European Union tariff on American whiskey by saying “If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER EU REPRESENTED COUNTRIES. This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”
The whiskey tariff Trump is mad about is coming into force as retaliation for the 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum that the President put into effect against the EU this week. But putting aside everything else about this statement, it’s worth pointing out that American Champagne won’t benefit from these tariffs because there is no American Champagne business. As lots of people already know, Champagne can only be made in it’s original home of the Champagne region in France, and anything resembling it produced in the United States and other countries cannot legally use the name. If it comes from anywhere else, it is sparkling wine — along with some other protected names, like Italian Prosecco. And what makes Champagne isn’t just about the label either.
President Trump is talking about protecting an American Champagne industry that doesn’t exist
Champagne is only legally allowed to come from France due to a 2006 wine-trade agreement where the U.S agreed to honor labeling standards used in the European Union. In Europe, many products, including Champagne, are protected by D.O.P. labels, or Protected Designation of Origin. These laws ensure that certain products are only made with ingredients from their home regions.
These labels are based on the idea of terroir, which means that the specific climate, soil, and weather of where wine or other products are produced affects the final flavor. Champagne must also be produced through a specific naturally carbonated method, and only with seven specific grapes grown in Champagne, France. But even if American producers were to copy these methods as precisely as possible, they still couldn’t make any type of Champagne because they can’t replicate the growing conditions of Southwest France.
There is one exception for the labeling: American brands that were using the term Champagne before the 2006 agreement were grandfathered in to allow the label, so you may see “American Champagne” on bottles from Korbel or André, but for the reasons above it’s not actually Champagne. So if you love Champagne or any type of sparkling wine from Europe, be prepared for much, much higher prices if this tariff goes through, with no American business set to benefit.
