PHILADELPHIA — The bar was buzzing in East Passyunk’s latest hotspot, and the drink of alternative was wine, largely imported. As patrons grazed on picture-perfect Comté ravioles and herb-flecked lentil salad, they ponied as much as the bar and counters at Supérette on Saturday and sipped on Slovenian pet-nat, an Italian white mix, and muscadet and Syrah from France — all for $16 a glass or much less. On the cabinets by the cheese-and-meat case, the gathering of retail bottles hails from Portugal, Austria, Spain, and past, with worth factors starting from $22 to $85. (There’s some American and South American illustration, too, in fact.)
How would this scene change if President Donald Trump levies the 200 % tariff on European wine he first floated final week? It’s too quickly to inform, in keeping with Supérette’s Chloe Grigri, who additionally co-owns Superfolie, the Good King Tavern, and Le Caveau — all fantastic, wine-forward bars in Philly. (Grigri’s dad and enterprise associate, Bernard, is initially from France, and her travels there have influenced the entire above bars.)
“I think anything that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth is performative and exaggerative, so I don’t think we know quite enough right this second to say exactly what those tariffs will look like,” Grigri mentioned in an interview final Friday.
Grigri has some extent of reference from 2019, although, when the Trump administration imposed a 25 % on wine from France, Germany, Spain, and Britain, in addition to many different imported specialties from the European Union (assume olive oil, cheese, Scotch, and many others.). “We took a hit,” she mentioned, including that she had been build up stock for then-newly opened Le Caveau, which helped mitigate the instant monetary influence on the time. Many importers and distributors who had been planning forward did the identical, controlling prices for his or her clients. Her first thought when she heard concerning the 200 % tariff proposal — a response to a 50 % tariff on American whiskey that’s slated to enter impact within the EU on April 1 — was, “Here we go again.”
