French Wine Exports Fall as Tariffs Hit U.S. Sales

France’s wine industry faced a sharp setback in 2025, with a smaller harvest and a steep drop in exports, according to the Agriculture Ministry, which said on Wednesday that climate damage, vineyard pullbacks and trade pressure from the United States all weighed on the sector.

The ministry estimated French wine production at 34.4 million hectoliters in 2025, down from 36.2 million hectoliters in 2024, which had already been considered a weak year. Officials said the decline reflected unfavorable weather, including an August heat wave, as well as fewer planted acres after a government-backed vine-pull program aimed at helping the industry work through its crisis.

The export picture was also bleak. Between August and December 2025, shipments of French wine, excluding spirits, fell 4% in volume and 10% in value compared with the same period a year earlier, according to customs data cited by the ministry. The sharpest decline came in the United States, the largest foreign market for French wine, where exports of appellation wines dropped 29% in volume and 46% in value.

The ministry linked much of that decline to tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump beginning in August, with a minimum duty of 15%, along with a weaker dollar against the euro that made European products about 10% more expensive for American buyers over the period.

Other markets also softened. Exports to China fell 13% in value, while shipments to Japan declined 12%, suggesting that demand across Asia was also under pressure.

Champagne exports reached their lowest level in 12 years over the period studied, the ministry said. Cognac continued a slide that began in 2020, with export volumes down 20% from August through December compared with the same months in 2024. That category was hit both by U.S. tariffs and by a Chinese tax on brandy introduced in 2024.

Wine remains France’s third-largest export sector after aerospace and cosmetics, but domestic consumption has also continued to weaken. Sales of wine in French supermarkets and hypermarkets, excluding sparkling wines, fell 4% from January through November 2025 compared with the same period a year earlier.