With President-elect Donald Trump taking office, local wine experts weigh in on how tariffs could impact the Central Coast wine industry.
American wineries rely on equipment such as barrels made in France, corks made in Europe, and glass made in Mexico and China.
“Those increases in Chinese tariffs happened in the last Trump administration, so that was before Covid," Peachy Canyon Winery Director of Sales Cynthia Bowser said. "I think every three months we were seeing another raise. There was negotiations and then a raise, negotiations and a raise.”
Bowser says if tariffs are increased, glass would be the most affected. Increased costs have already forced her to cut back on staffing in the past few years.
“Usually we've got 3 or 4 servers [on a Saturday] plus two support staff, a bar back and a host helping support," Bowser said. "Right now, we don't have enough business to keep those guys. I'm sending my support staff home.”
“When a winery in France sells wine to America, they don't just sell it to America," explained Joel Peterson, Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance Executive Director. "They sell it to a distributor who then sells that to restaurants and in grocery stores and things like that, so there's two or three U.S. companies involved in there."
However, Peterson says tariffs could actually make things more competitive in the U.S. and help bulk wine sellers.
“If there were tariffs on those wines and that was that bulk wine, then a U.S. winery could buy U.S.-made bulk wine and then support the U.S. wine industry," Peterson added. "So that's the flip side to tariffs. I think there's there's good and bad."
Peterson says there will be a healthy debate about tariffs in the wine industry, both positive and negative.
