NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — With President Donald Trump teasing ahead to future tariffs, wine experts warn your next dinner out in Nashville could cost more.
Jon-David Headrick lives in Franklin. However, he often travels to France, selecting biodynamic wines to import to the U.S.
“To share the taste of something on the other side of the world with our American customers — it’s really special,” Headrick said.
With recent tariff talks, restaurant owners and wine connoisseurs fear bringing wine into the country could soon become more expensive.
“For every dollar the United States sends to let’s say France or Italy to buy a bottle of wine, U.S. businesses — mostly small and family owned — make $4.52,” president of the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance Ben Aneff said. “For restaurants, making a big margin on wine isn’t a luxury; it’s an absolute necessity.”
Although tariffs on wine haven’t been officially announced yet during this presidential term, Trump imposed them in 2019. Still wines from France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom had a 25% tariff. Businesses across the U.S., Nashville, felt the impact.
“Some of the senior restaurant folks that we talk to all the time say at a minimum, at a small restaurant, the tariffs on wines meant that they lost one staff member per shift,” Aneff said. “In a nutshell, I think, diners could expect to pay higher prices for worse service. You’d have some restaurants that would, obviously, close and restaurants that otherwise would have opened won’t be able to open.”
Headrick explained that tariffs aren’t paid by the country the wine is coming from, but the American company importing the wine. With wines being unique to their country of origin, he hopes the US will avoid imposing tariffs on the industry.
“When the United States company imports that wine, they have to write a check to the U.S. government for the amount of the tariff. That could be many tens of thousands of dollars,” Headrick explained. “From a personal level, it’s going to hurt a lot of my friends who are farmers — who are real salt of the earth, hands in the dirt kind of farmers abroad. It’s going to hurt our business a lot.”
