As of Friday 13th March 2020, the USA’s 25% tariffs on imports of French, Spanish, and German still wines under 14% alcohol remain in place.
Most, if not all, of Arden’s classic wines have less than 14% alcohol so we cannot dodge the tariff.
However, it is not always stated or known what the alcohol level of old wines are.
For example, it has been claimed that some of the grapes that contributed to Château Mouton Rothschild 1945 – of which we have sold a bottle from the cellar of Faringdon House – produced must at 15% alcohol. But the overall alcohol content of this exceptional wine is probably lower, and probably less than 14%.
Older Bordeaux and Burgundy wines – up to the early-1980s, perhaps – frequently had alcohol levels of 11%-12.5%. Wines that achieved high alcohol levels were exceptions to the norm.
Château Cheval Blanc 1929 and 1947 (the latter is shown here – a now empty bottle from a wine-fuelled trip to Scandinavia 15 years ago) apparently achieved 14.4% alcohol. Cheval’s position on the St-Émilion graves (gravel)has always imbued it with a richness and potency that its neighbours Figeac and La Dominique do not match.
But Cheval Blanc 1961 had a level of “only” 12.5% because fermentations by this time were more carefully controlled than they had been.
So we can send Cheval Blanc 1929 and 1947 tariff-free over the Atlantic – but not the 1961…
