Reported today on The Seattle Times
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Wine woes: Tariffs, Brexit cloud French Beaujolais season
CHATILLON, France (AP) – Celebration is the mot du jour in France’s Beaujolais region on the third Thursday of November, when winemakers and sellers uncork the season’s Beaujolais Nouveau with feasting and fanfare.
But considerable uncertainty is clouding this year’s celebration of the idiosyncratic wine, known for its youth rather than its age, as the French wine industry finds itself increasingly squeezed by unfavorable geopolitics and turbulent markets.
New American tariffs are threatening profits. Brexit looms. Unrest in Hong Kong has shaken that lucrative market. And China is turning to Chilean and Argentine wines instead.
“Today, world commerce is complicated, especially in a period where the competition is strong,” Dominique Piron, president of the Beaujolais winemakers’ association, told The Associated Press.
Beaujolais, a region spanning 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of Lyon, has spent decades marketing its wines globally. It now exports to more than 110 countries, according to statistics from Vinescence, a wine production company working with 310 winemakers in the area.
Beaujolais Nouveau has seen remarkable success. Half of the wine is exported, notably to Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Some connoisseurs scoff at the young, inexpensive variety, a proud newcomer amid renowned wines in Burgundy to the north and in Beaujolais itself.
Beaujolais Nouveau producers and defenders, however, say their wine buoys the regional economy and constitutes a significant material and cultural export for France. During the first eight months of 2019, it led French wine regions in exports, according to Piron.
“It’s a wine that goes with most cuisines in the world – very easy to match,