French wine and spirit exports just hit a 21st-century low, owing to some tariff bottlenecks
Sales of the French drinks to the US and China both dropped by about a fifth in 2025 amid trade tensions.
The Wine Paris exhibition this week is seeing international brands, trade professionals, and wine lovers — including President Macron, who’s known for enjoying some glasses — convene in the French capital to sample one of the nation’s most esteemed exports.
This year, though, there might be a little less reason for France’s winemakers to pop the corks. Data from industry group FEVS, reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday, showed total French wine and spirits exports fell for a third consecutive year by value and a fourth straight year by volume.
In 2025, France’s total wine and spirit exports by sales slumped 8% from the year prior to €14.3 billion (~$17 billion), marking a 17% drop in value since 2022. Total volumes also fell 3% to a total of 168 million cases — the lowest level recorded in at least 25 years.
As such, the alcohol sector has slipped from the nation’s second-largest export industry to third, behind aerospace and cosmetics, per Reuters.
In a press conference at Wine Paris, FEVS President Gabriel Picard cited “geopolitical tensions” and “trade conflicts” as factors weighing on the nation’s drinks exports. Even as climate change and slowing global demand have posed challenges to France’s wine industry for some time — the government plans to spend ~$150 million on uprooting vines to quell overproduction — tariff wars made 2025 a rough case.
Levy en rosé
Higher import fees imposed by the US on French wine and spirits (currently at 15%, though this could, threats permitting, be raised as high as 200%) saw export sales to America drop 21% in 2025. That was a particularly tough blow for winemakers, since the US has long been their biggest buyer.
Sales to China, the third-biggest market for French wine and spirit exporters, also fell 20% last year, though largely due to retaliatory anti-dumping duties on EU brandy. Still, China’s growing portfolio of French-style wines pose yet another threat to the industry, with Macron himself conceding this week that the country “knew how to produce.”
