Amid the chaos caused by new tariffs, I wondered how it is affecting wine merchants in USA but here too. On the plus side, I for one am fully up for trying some Canadian pinots that they may be looking to offload to the UK in place of their usual US market.
And is the US market significant enough for Bordeaux producers to lower their en primeur prices this year?
US merchants often offer wines “pre-arrival”. What that means can vary from it is just a couple of weeks away to it is en primeur. Sometimes it appears to mean that they will buy the case overseas once you put in the order. Usually they will give you some ETA - though often that seems to slip. Since November, I have only bought “in stock” - otherwise you have no idea what tarrif might apply when your wine arrives. I assume that most other US wine buyers are doing the same. The emails I get from merchants currently are making a point of emphasizing that the wines they are mentioning are in stock. So I assume that generally the US is going to sit out this Bordeaux en primeur cycle. How Bordeaux will react I have no idea.
Personally my red Bordeaux situation does not worry me. I have a fair amount of it that is still maturing and should still be drinking nicely in a decade’s time. Decreasing the stocks in my cellar of it, rather than increasing, might be a good thing (could there possibly be a few other Purple Pagers out there in a similar situation 
?). I am more worried about getting a variety of fresh young white wines going forward.
Canadian pinots can be nice if you like lighter style - do try one if you come across. We do not see many here though - I do not think the volume is that large.
1 Like
I can tell you from the experience of trying to source Canadian wines for the wine tasting at last year’s FT Weekend Festival in Washington DC in what was then called the Kennedy Center, that it’s almost impossible to find Canadian wine in the US, Just as it’s now impossible to find American wine in Canada - much to the detriment of US wine producers for whom Canada used to be their most important market.
The impact of the tariffs on this year’s en primeur campaign will surely be of interest to those outside the US thinking of buying.
I believe it is still officially the “Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.” Although I did hear a rumor of a change to the “Gulf of Mexico Center.”
1 Like