French champagne producers do nearly a billion dollars of business with the United States every year. But on Friday in Épernay, the world capital of sparkling wine, was the only number on someone's lips 200.
That was the percentage of the rate that President Trump has threatened to impose champagne and other European wines and spirits that were exported to the United States, in a trade war that exploded last week after the European Union came across Mr. Trump on Staal and Aluminum with his own duties on American products.
The triple numeral threat landed as a lightning bolt in Épernay, rattling workers in nearby fields, producers in small villages and the venerable houses that seep the champagne, the Central Boulevard of Épernay and a UNESCO heritage location and a tasteful wealth.
“A rate of 200 percent is designed to ensure that no champagne will be shipped to the United States,” said Calvin Boucher, a manager at Michel Gonet, a 225-year-old champagne house on the Avenue. With 20 to 30 percent of the 200,000 bottles, it makes it annually exported to American wine traders and restaurants, “that company would be crushed,” he said, adding that the price of a $ 125 champagne would be more than triple triple.
Épernay is in the heart of a region that produces the world's best bubbles. The United States is the largest foreign market, with 27 million bottles that were shipped there in 2023, with a value of around 810 million euros ($ 885 million).
Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier grapes covered the rolling hills and deep valleys from Champagne, which covers more than 130 square miles, from the city of Reims to the Aube river. The area falls under the strict appellation of France d'Igurine, which ensures that only the sparkling wine made here, with the help of specific methods, can be called legal champagne.
With more than 4,000 independent winemakers and 360 Champagne houses, the region produces around 300 million bottles annually, with one billion more resting in cellars. The largest houses – including Dom Pérignon, Veuve Clicquot and Moët & Chandon, owned by the luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton – dominate production and exports and exports and is good for a third of the total sale.
But such figures were of little comfort in the aftermath of the threat of Mr. Trump. Like Avenue de Champagne, Nathalie Doucet, the president of Besserat de Bellefon, a special champagne house that exports 10 percent of his premium production to the United States, said the trade war made its anxious.
“We are waiting to see what is happening, but it's not good news,” said Mrs. Doucet, whose champagne was made with a difficult low -pressure process that gives it a fresh acidity and a nice bustle.
Champagne had a difficult year in bad weather that had reduced the harvest. Consumption has fallen as young people shifted the habits and switched to cocktails and traditional beer. The sale of Champagne has been thinner since the pandemic and fell by 9 percent last year.
At the same time, she said, Europe struggled with wars in Ukraine and Gaza. And now the trade war with the United States, one of the traditional allies of France, has given it to the feeling about issues that have nothing to do with champagne.
“It seems like a deliberate punishment,” said Cyril departure, the owner of the Salvatori Wine Shop, close to the Avenue, which offers a wide range of traditional champagnes. His wife was an export manager for one of the big champagne houses and had already godified figures about the potential impact.
Leah Razzouki, a resident of Épernay whose family has worked for generations in the Champagne company, said she was furious. “Many of our friends are small producers and they would be hit very hard,” she said.
The damage of a trade war would spread far beyond the royal houses of Champagne, become American importers and distributors and endanger countless small companies.
Michael Reiss, the president of Vineyard Road, a small distributor in Framingham, Massachusetts, who imports champagne and wines from Europe and distributes them in New England, said that small companies such as his, including restaurants and shops, would be “highly wounded”. The unpredictable trade environment could force companies to cancel planned investments, he added.
As an addition to the pain, rates at the start of the Supply Chain can multiply, because every company that treats the product marks it accordingly, said Mr Reiss. “So even a rate of 25 percent can easily lead to an increase in prices from 40 to 60 percent,” he said.
A rate of 200 percent “would eliminate the possibility of people who buy things that bring them joy in their lives,” he added.
Even within the Champagne museum that borders the Avenue in Épernay, the chatter wandered at the rates of Mr. Trump. Sacha Raynaud, whose family owns a small champagne house, had taken a friend to learn the history of Champagne, who first appeared in the 17th century on the tables of royalties, giving the drink his nickname 'The King of Wines'.
“The French wake up with what is happening in the United States and start talking about boycotting American products,” she said.
Similar concerns circulated in the fields. Working in a buttery morning light, a dozen field hands protected brown vines into threads for the spring growing season on freshly plowed earth in the shade of the Champagne-producing city of Reil, just west of Épernay.
Even these jobs were in danger, said Patrick Andrade, who runs a small company that helps to maintain champagne -wijngaarden. The 12 -hectare plot (30 hectares) belonged to a small house that exports to the United States, he said.
If the sale drops, wine producers would need fewer field hands and there would be less work for tractor operators, cork makers and bottle makers. In the worst case, he added, the champagne producers could force to tear out vines.
On Friday, the French Minister of Finance, Eric Lombard, called the trade war 'idiot' and said he would soon travel to Washington. “We have to talk to the Americans to bring back the tension,” he told French television.
The largest champagne houses in France have remained remarkably quiet and refused to say something awaiting how Mr.'s threat. Trump would play – and whether European officials can withdraw him.
Among them was LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which sells nearly 35 percent of his wines and spirits in the United States. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Outside LVMH's Moët & Chandon Mansion on the Avenue de Champagne, a group of American selfies broke for a statue of Dom Pérignon, the monk that champagne invented. In the stately building, no staff members wanted to talk rates.
Nevertheless, the local population whispered rumors that the large houses were upset by the tariff threat, but expected that it could possibly blow.
Finally, some said, Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France and the head of the LVMH -Rijk, which 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 is all only speculation. The reality is that nothing is certain – and uncertainty is bad for business.
Back in the Michel Gonet Champagne House, Mr Boucher pointed to a representation of Cuvées who were popular among customers in the United States.
“It's just a stressful situation because we don't know if the rates will even happen,” he said. “It's not good for anyone.”
Aurelien varieties And Ségolène Le Stradic contributed reporting.
