Tariffs Could Be a Win for California’s Battered Wine Industry

‘A lot of people don’t want to speak out on this because it’s become such a politicized issue,’ a winemaker said.

A spoiled wine vineyard in Lodi, Calif., on Dec. 13, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

LOS ANGELES—Amid the clamor surrounding the Trump administration’s whirlwind tariff announcements over the past week, some in California’s wine industry are taking a sanguine view.

Stuart Spencer, a winemaker and executive director of the Lodi Winegrape Commission, based in the state’s Central Valley, said recent media coverage has mostly focused on the perspective of restaurants and retailers that rely on imports and has ignored that of growers and winemakers.