People are scared to order' California wine producers feel the tariff squeeze

Kory Burke, a small producer of high-quality wines in central California, never believed that tariffs on imports from France or Italy would boost his business. But as soon as Donald Trump announced last month that he was slapping a 15% levy on all goods from the European Union, he realized they would instead be a huge hindrance.

- Andrew Gumbel

"The first email I received was from my cork provider," Burke recalled. "He said he'd take on 2% of the additional cost of importing corks from Europe, but I would have to absorb the other 13%. Then my barrel supplier got in touch, pushing me to put in my orders because every new French barrel coming across the Atlantic after the tariffs was going to come with a $100 (£74) or $150 fee."

Every one of these messages was a gut punch for Burke's five-year-old family-run business, Dresser Winery, which sits on an idyllic hillside outside Paso Robles and specializes in big bold reds. Burke sent out a note to his wine club members earlier this year telling them he did not plan on increasing prices for the fall shipment, but he realized he could no longer honor the commitment.

"If we do that, we have to shut the business down," he said flatly.

It turns out even US wine producers are heavily reliant on foreign components - everything from French oak barrels, which give the wine a buttery, vanilla finish in contrast to the much less appealing brown sugar taste of American oak, to glass bottles and corks and the wine-making equipment itself.

"Every single product we use, from our pumps to the de-stemmer, comes with instructions written in six languages," Burke said. "Could we produce some of these things here? Sure, but it would take three years to get production up and running."

As another producer from Paso Robles, Paul Hoover of Still Waters Vineyards, put it: "The only thing in my bottles made in America is the wine."