French champagne producers make almost billions of dollars with the United States every year. But on Friday at épernay, the world capital of the sparkling wine, the only number on the lips of anyone was 200.
This was the rate of invoice that President Trump threatened to impose champagne and other European wines and alcoholic beverages exported to the United States, in a trade war that exploded this week after tackling Mr Trump’s sanctions for steel and aluminum.
The triple threat landed as a thunderbolt on épernay, ringing workers in nearby fields, producers in small villages and the respectable houses that align Avenue de Champagne Avenue, the central avenue of épernay and a UNESCO area of UNESCO.
“A 200 % invoice is designed to make sure that it will not be shipped to the United States,” said Calvin Boucher, director of Michel Gonet, 225 -year -old Champagne House on Avenue. With 20 to 30 percent of 200,000 bottles makes an annual export to US traders and wine restaurants, “this business will be crushed,” he said, adding that the price of a $ 125 champagne would be more than triple all night.
Épernay sits in the heart of an area that produces the best bubbles in the world. The United States is the largest foreign market, with 27 million bottles being shipped there in 2023, worth about 810m euros ($ 885 million).
Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier Grapes cover the hills and deep champagne valleys, which cover more than 130 square miles, from the city of Reims to the Aube River. The area is under the strict D’Arigine system of France, which ensures that only the sparkling wine made here, using specific methods, can be legally called champagne.
With more than 4,000 independent winemakers and 360 champagne houses, the area produces about 300 million bottles a year, with one billion resting in cellars. Larger houses – including Dom Pérignon, Veuve Clicquot and Moët & Chandon, which belong to the luxury group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton – dominate production and exports and represent one -third of total sales.
But such forms were a little comfort after Mr Trump’s threat. Just outside De Champagne Avenue, Nathalie Doucet, president of Besserat de Bellefon, a special champagne home that exports 10 % of its United States premium, said the trade war made it anxious.
“We’re waiting to see what’s going on, but it’s not good news,” said Ms Doucet, whose champagne is made with a painful low -pressure process that gives her a pure acidity and fine turmoil.
Champagne already had a difficult year with bad weather that had reduced harvesting. Consumption has been reduced as young people shifted habits and turned into cocktails and craft beer. Champagne sales have been diluted by the pandemic, reducing 9 % last year.
At the same time, he said, Europe was fighting with wars in Ukraine and Gaza. And now the trade war with the United States, one of the traditional allies of France, over issues that have nothing to do with champagne, made it feel like a crash.
“It seems like a deliberate punishment,” Cyril said, departed, the owner of the Salvatori wine store, just outside the avenue, which offers a wide variety of cramps. His wife was an export manager for one of the big champagne houses and already had crisp numbers on the possible impact.
Leah Razzouki, a resident of épernay, whose family worked in Sampania for generations, said she was outraged. “Many of our friends are small producers and they will be hit very hard,” he said.
The damage of a trade war will spread far beyond Champagne’s royal houses, the blow of American importers and distributors and endangering many small businesses.
Michael Reiss, president of Vineyard Road, a small distributor at Framingham, Mass, who imports champagne and wines from Europe and distributes them to New England, said small businesses, such as restaurants and retail stores, would be “very bad”. The unpredictable commercial environment could force businesses to cancel planned investments, he added.
By adding pain, invoices applied at the beginning of the supply chain can multiply, as any company handling the product marks it accordingly, Mr Reiss said. “So even a 25 % invoice can easily lead to an increase of 40 to 60 % of prices,” he said.
A 200 percent invoice “will eliminate people’s ability to buy things that bring them joy to their lives,” he added.
Even in the champagne museum bordering the avenue on Épernay, the conversation fell on Mr Trump’s invoices. Sacha Raynaud, whose family holds a small champagne house, had brought a friend to learn the story of champagne, which first appeared in the 17th century at the tables of rights, giving the drink the nickname “The King of Wines”.
“The French wake up to what is happening in the United States and start talking about boycott American products,” he said.
Similar concerns were released in the fields. Working in a breakfast light of butter, twelve -field hands secured with glued brown vines in cables in front of the spring of the growing season in fresh land organization in the shadow of the city of champagne production, west of épernay.
Even these jobs were in danger, said Patrick Andrade, who manages a small company that helps maintain champagne vineyards. The 12 -acre plot (30 acres) belonged to a small house exporting to the United States, he said.
If sales fall, wine producers would need less field hands and there would be less work for tractors, cork manufacturers and bottle makers. In the worst case, he added, he could force champagne producers to consider eliminating the vines.
On Friday, French Finance Minister Eric Lombard called on the “idiot” trade war and said he would travel to Washington soon. “We have to talk to the Americans to bring the tension back,” he told French television.
France’s largest champagne houses remained clearly silent, reducing to say anything, waiting to see how Mr Trump’s threat would play – and whether European officials could get him away.
Among them was LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which sells almost 35 % of its wines and spirits in the United States. The company did not respond to a request for comments.
Outside LVMH’s Moët & Chandon Mansion on De Champagne Avenue, a group of Americans broke themselves in front of a statue of Dom Pérignon, the monk who invented champagne. Inside the impressive building, no employee wanted to speak invoices.
However, the locals whispered rumors that the big houses were upset by the threat of duties, but it was expected that it could hit.
In addition, some have said, Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France and the leader of the LVMH empire, who dominates much of the production of champagne, has a long -term relationship with the US president and was invited by Mr Trump to his inauguration. Perhaps Mr Arnault’s friendship would prevail at the end of the day, they said.
But for now, that’s just speculations. The reality is that nothing is certain – and uncertainty is bad for businesses.
Back at the home of Michel Gonet Champagne, Mr Boucher pointed out an appearance of cuvées that were popular among customers in the United States.
“It’s just a stressful situation because we don’t know if invoices will even happen,” he said. “It’s not good for anyone.”
Aurelien Breeden and Ségolène lestric They contributed reports.
