See which cocktails and wines could get pricier if Trump adds tariffs
It might be time to stock up on your favorite Cointreau, Bordeaux or limoncello – if President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on European alcohol are enacted, prices could skyrocket for wine and cocktail drinkers.
Trump posted online this month that he would impose a 200% tariff on wine, Champagne and other alcoholic drinks from members of the European Union unless the bloc drops a planned 50 % tariff on U.S. whiskey. (The EU later said it would delay those tariffs until mid-April to make time for negotiations.)
“These companies can’t absorb all of the costs,” said Malcolm Purinton, a food and world historian at Northeastern University in Boston. “You’re going to be seeing these prices go up. There’s so many different brands that you don’t even really think about most of the time.”
Many popular cocktails rely heavily on liquor made in Europe.
Bar owners know that many consumers will stop buying cocktails if prices double or triple, especially as people reach their limits with the rising cost of living, said Dave Kaplan, CEO and co-founder of Death & Co., which owns bars in several cities, including D.C. and New York. But restaurants will have to raise prices somewhat to make up for the increased cost of ingredients.
“Many people are strategically stockpiling or placing larger orders now of products that are integral,” he said.
That means bars might take cocktails off their menus, or find twists on them that don’t use European alcohol. Restaurants will need to be transparent about pricing and ingredient changes, Kaplan said, perhaps by introducing “tariff specials.”
The U.S. and EU did not levy tariffs on each other’s spirits from the late 1990s until 2018, when the EU imposed a 25% tax on U.S. whiskey as part of retaliatory tariffs during the first Trump administration. Those taxes caused the U.S. whiskey export market to plunge after decades of overall growth in the spirit trade industry between the regions, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.
If Trump orders the new round of tariffs, some wines and liquors might disappear from shelves as importers decide they’re not worth the cost to bring in; or the new duties might raise the prices of most items in wine and liquor aisles.
During the earlier tariffs, Andrew Lench’s business passed along the tariff cost to buyers as a separate charge and offered to hold orders until tariffs were lifted to avoid the additional cost. Lench, whose family owns an import business and an e-commerce company, Grand Vin Wine, said the proposed new tariffs would be catastrophic. “With 200%, it’s just a straight-up loss for the industry,” he said.
EU countries produced one-fifth of the wine consumed in the United States in 2023, according to IWSR, an alcohol-industry analytics company.
The impact could go beyond the prices of shelf-ready products directly imported from Europe. Transporting goods could get more expensive for American suppliers if shippers who used to have full boats and trucks are spreading the same cost over smaller loads.
While some wine-lovers and wine bars are stocking up on cases of their favorite pours, some importers are proceeding with caution. Julius Angelini of Angelini Wines in Connecticut said he is waiting to see what happens with the threatened tariffs before he places some of his usual orders – otherwise, he may end up with a huge tax bill when a ship docks stateside.
“If I usually buy a product for $10 and all of a sudden it costs $30, I don’t think people would buy it,” he said.