Tariffs send shock waves through Italian wine community on both sides of the Atlantic.

Above: a rack of Italian wine in a retail shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

First the good news:

The new across-the-board 20 percent tariffs aimed at the E.U. are lower than once expected and nowhere near the 200 percent the U.S. had initially threatened. As one high-profile Italian wine grower said yesterday evening in an interview with a national daily, “it could have been worse.”

More good news:

The new tariffs allow exceptions for products “on the water,” in other words, on a U.S.-bound container ship. Importers of E.U. products have up until midnight the evening before the deadlines to get their products out of the block. Many importers were fearful that they would be slapped with the tax for products already en route.

Not great news:

The big story in the Italian papers this morning isn’t about wine (although last night, the initial freakout focus was wine). It’s about Parmigiano Reggiano exports to the U.S. which were already being taxed at 15 percent. Parmigiano Reggiano producers are now facing a 35 percent tariff on their wheels. I guess we better get used to grating “Parmesan” from Wisconsin.

The hard truth:

Italy exports more wine, worth roughly $2 billion, to the U.S. than any other E.U. country.

The opening paragraph of the lead story in the Times, “A Stunned World Reckons with Economic Fallout from Trump’s Tariffs,” really put it into perspective:

“Laptop computers from Taiwan, wine from Italy, frozen shrimp from India, Nike sneakers from Vietnam, and Irish butter. These products are found in homes across the United States.”

The above quote gives you a sense of how much Italian wine relies on the U.S. market for sales. By most accounts, roughly a quarter of all Italian wine production heads to our shores. Of all the major E.U. producers of wine, Italy is without question the most vulnerable and exposed in the trade war.

Vinitaly, our industry’s annual four-day trade fair, begins on Sunday. I’m heading to Italy tonight to attend. And I’ll be reporting on my conversations with Italian wine producers and U.S. wine importers. There’s going to be a lot of pain, a lot of sacrifice. But we will get through this. #ItalianWineStrong!