California's wine industry leery of tariffs, but some growers hope they help

LODI, Calif. (AP) — Escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and Europe are being closely watched in California’s iconic wine industry, which is already struggling due to declining global wine consumption, rising costs and swings in weather.

Many fear tariffs will hike the costs of wine-making materials and dampen U.S. importers of European wines. The Wine Institute, which advocates for California wineries, said the tariffs will "hurt the broader wine sector including farmers, vintners, distributors, retailers and the millions of people working across the extended wine supply chain.”

But some winegrape growers in the Golden State are hoping for a silver lining.

Four-decade winegrape grower Craig Ledbetter said it costs more for him to farm in California than it would in wine-producing countries like Chile and Australia, and his industry doesn’t get the government support European grapegrowers do. A partner at family-operated Vino Farms in Lodi, Calif., Ledbetter said he left thousands of tons of winegrapes on the vine two years ago due to paltry demand and has shifted some land into more lucrative pistachios.

He said he sees President Donald Trump’ s call for a 200% tariff on European wine, Champagne and spirits as a starting point, not an end to negotiations, and hopes in the long-run that tariffs will improve his lot.

“I think it’s all going to work itself out, and I think it will equal our playing field a little bit,” he said. “As a farmer I have to look at it through an optimistic lens, because if I don’t, you know, what am I doing?”

Many wine advocates and experts have warned that tariffs are expected to hurt U.S.-based importers and increase the cost of supplies such as wine barrels and glass bottles. They say Trump's latest move — in response to European plans for a 50% tariff on American whiskey — could draw retaliatory tariffs that would wallop U.S. exports of wine to Europe.

Already, U.S. wine is facing a 25% import tax in Canada — the destination for a third of California's wine exports in 2022 — since the Trump administration slapped tariffs on a series of Canadian goods. Jessie Vallery, director of marketing and operations for Alexander Valley Winegrowers in Sonoma County, said Canada has already pulled U.S. wines from the market.

California produces about 80% of U.S. wine and shipped about 24 million cases of wine overseas in 2023, according to Wine Institute figures.

The state's wine industry is already under tremendous pressure due to shifting consumption patterns as well as rising farming costs, wildfire smoke exposure and drought. The total amount of wine consumed per capita in the United States in 2023 was the lowest in more than a decade, according to the Wine Institute.

Most California wine is consumed in the United States. But wine exports are a key agricultural commodity for the state. Valued at $1.3 billion in 2022, wine exports trail only almonds, dairy and pistachios, state data show.

Mainstream economists are generally skeptical about tariffs, considering them an inefficient way for governments to raise revenue.

Stuart Spencer, executive director of the Lodi Winegrape Commission, said tariff talk bogged down his recent trip to Europe to promote California wines.

Wine is especially vulnerable to trade wars because location matters as wine is marketed based on the region where grapes are grown and is not an interchangeable good, he said.

“It has created a lot of chaos and uncertainty,” he said, adding European buyers worried there could be retaliatory tariffs driving up the cost of U.S. wine. "It has created a lot of hesitancy, which is leading to cancelled sales.”

But in the short term, higher tariffs on European wines might make California wines relatively more affordable and create some new opportunities, said Rob McMillan, executive vice president and wine division founder at Silicon Valley Bank.

Keith Saarloos said he doesn't export wine from his estate vineyard in Santa Barbara wine country, and only sells direct to consumers “from our plow to your porch.”

He said the tariffs are just another bump during a tumultuous time in an industry he likened to offroading, and he hopes something good comes from it.

“I would love every single person to focus all their attention on new wines,” Saarloos said. “I have to remain optimistic.”

Taxin reported from Santa Ana, California

Wine is poured into a glass in the tasting room of the Lodi Wine Visitor Center in Lodi, California on March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

Craig Ledbetter of Vino Farms holds a bottle of wine made with grapes grown in his family-owned vineyards at the Lodi Wine Visitor Center in Lodi, Calif., March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

Craig Ledbetter of Vino Farms stands in a demonstration vineyard outside the Lodi Wine Visitor Center in Lodi, Calif., March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

Aerial view of Oak Farm Vineyards in Lodi, Calif. on March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

Craig Ledbetter of Vino Farms stands in a demonstration vineyard the Lodi Wine Visitor Center in Lodi, California on March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

Craig Ledbetter of Vino Farms looks at locally made wines at the Lodi Wine Visitor Center in Lodi, Calif. on March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A Georgetown University researcher has been detained by immigration officials, prompting another high-profile legal fight over deportation proceedings against foreign-born visa holders who live in the U.S.

Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University, was accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media” and determined to be deportable by the Secretary of State’s office, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said late Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter. The deportation effort comes amid legal fights over cases involving a Columbia University international affairs graduate student and a doctor from Lebanon.

Politico, which first reported on Suri's case, said that masked agents arrested him outside his home in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday night and told him his visa had been revoked, citing a legal filing by his lawyer.

His lawyer didn’t immediately respond to an messages seeking further comment Thursday. An online court docket shows that an urgent motion seeking to halt the deportation proceedings was filed Tuesday against the Trump administration.

A Georgetown University webpage identifies Suri as a postdoctoral fellow at Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the university. The university said his areas of interest include religion, violence and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia. The bio said that he earned a doctorate in India while studying efforts to introduce democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq, and he has traveled extensively in conflict zones in several countries.

The university said in a statement Thursday that Suri is an Indian national who was “duly granted a visa to enter the United States to continue his doctoral research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention,” the school said. “We support our community members’ rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable. We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly.”

The U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement detainee locator website lists Suri as being in the custody of immigration officials at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana.

Separately, Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record, was detained earlier this month over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and is fighting deportation efforts in federal court. And Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported over the weekend despite having a U.S. visa.

Finley reported from Norfolk, Va.

FILE - In this July 10, 2013, file photo, prospective students tour Georgetown University's campus in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)