Last Call with Julia Auger, in opposition of the proposed 100% wine tariff

Julia Auger is the general manager and wine director of deadhorse hill. Last week, we sat down to discuss the Trump administration’s proposed tariffs of up to 100%, which would impact all countries in the European Union who sell wine to the United States. Auger encourages local proprietors to contribute a public comment to the Office of the United States Trade Representative before Jan. 13 and to learn more about the proposed tariff from the National Restaurant Association.

Can you give a succinct overview of the proposed tariffs?

This is something I think most people aren't really aware of because it's not being presented in everyday English for consumers watching the news. I have to keep reading the proposal over and over again to totally understand what's happening because it's not just about wine. We're in a trade war. The last time we were in a trade war like this, it drove the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act which saw tariffs upwards of 50% during the Great Depression. Today’s proposed tariffs could be as high as 100%. As of October, a 25% tariff was already passed and implemented. It is currently being applied not just toward French wine, but a variety of different European goods that most consumers aren't even paying attention to. For instance, Spanish olives, tinned fish, olive oil, cheese, linens, and wool now have a 25% tax applied.

When could the next tariff increase take place?

We have up until Jan. 13 to get the attention of our congressional leaders and really encourage them not to do this. After it passes, it could impact us immediately. The problem is that it's triggering other trade wars. Europe is going to be fine, right? They're going to sell everything to China and Russia. There are huge global economies in Europe and Asia that will absorb all of these goods while the U.S. is going to have to rebuild those trade relationships. It's going to totally demolish trade relationships that we have with the European Union.

What triggered the new tariffs in the first place?

Supposedly, the trade war was triggered by Airbus. My understanding is that the EU wants to work more closely with Airbus, a European corporation, and work less closely with Boeing, an American corporation. The U.S. responded by saying something like, "If you're not going to buy our airplanes, we're going to impose this tariff on your products." It goes both ways. California exports over $1.4 billion of wine annually. What happens when the rest of the world cuts that off? Or they decide to start adding more tariffs to American products? The tariffs are meant to hurt Europe, but in return we are also hurting ourselves as an exporting country.

How will the proposed tariffs impact small businesses in Worcester?

This is a long term fear for Worcester because it will change small businesses here in this city. We're a city that is finally trying to come around and get people to stop shopping in big box stores. We're trying to build this downtown community. Small businesses are struggling to compete with the Amazons, Total Wines, and Walmarts of the world by getting people to shop locally. We're putting more power in their hands because they have the capital and the space to not feel the burden of these tariffs and not have to immediately put the onus on customers. They have their own trucking companies. They have their own shipping companies. They have their own warehouses. That's what makes these massive retailers successful. A small business will never come close to having those resources.

We could, in theory, be self sustaining here in the U.S. and drink nothing but our own wine, but what would we be missing out on culturally?

Everything! Everything that we have learned about wine making started in Europe. It started before there were boundaries between France and Spain. We can trace history with grapes. Whenever anybody wanted to go conquer some place, they brought their vines and their wines with them. We're losing a full perspective on something that is as old as man. It's really devastating. … To be able to teach (young people working at deadhorse hill) and expose them to real French wine, historical vineyard sites, and the families that have done this for 500 years is one of the best parts of my job. You can't tell the whole story without the diversity of terroir, climates, and grape varietals that don't even exist here in the U.S.

If we want to get an education in European wine at deadhorse hill over the next few weeks, what’s something you would suggest ordering?

We just brought on a new producer. Her name is Anne Paillet and she's a Parisian woman who was working a finance job until 2010 when she decided to shift gears. Her husband, Gregory Leclerc, had always been a winemaker. She didn't want to make the same wines as her husband or work with the same varietals. She really wanted to explore terroir and focus on a different region. She teamed up with one of the more influential contemporary winemakers, Christophe Beau, who is in the South of France in the Languedoc. He's a champion of natural wine. She began buying his grapes to try her own hand at winemaking. Eventually, he started leasing some of his vineyard to her. He is an old school, natural winemaker with a completely untainted vineyard that this new younger winemaker was able to take over and farm biodynamically to expand on his work. She's only a few vintages deep, but her first vintage just landed here in the U.S. this fall. We have three different cuvées from her. They came with a 25% tariff, but they're special and they're one of a kind and they speak true to an area that we love here, which is the South of France. They're special wines because they were made by someone who really cares about what she's doing. I want to stress how important that is. If you don't know who's making your wine, that means you also don't know what they're putting in your wine.