BBC: 'Is it for a day or four years?' Tariff uncertainty spooks small businesses

Donald Trump's talk of applying new tariffs to goods from America's biggest trade partners has sparked months of uncertainty for business owners.

On Saturday, the president made good on his threats, ordering a new 25% tax on shipments from Mexico and Canada and raising existing tariffs on goods from China by 10%.

But that has not stopped the questions.

"Is it for a day, is it a political flex or is it something that will last for four years?" asked Nicolas Palazzi, the founder of Brooklyn-based PM Spirits. He runs a 21-person business that imports and sells wine and spirits, about 20% of which come from Mexico.

Trump's orders set in motion threats that the president has discussed for months, striking at shipments from America's top three trade partners, which together account for more than 40% of the roughly $3tn goods the US imports each year.

Canadian oil and other "energy resources" will face a lower 10% rate. But otherwise, there will be no exceptions, the White House said.

Trump said the tariffs were intended to hold Canada and Mexico accountable for promises to address illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

The measures go into effect on 4 February and are to remain in place "until the crisis is alleviated," according to the orders.

If the plans were not a surprise, they still presented a potentially stunning blow to many businesses, especially for those in North America. The three countries have become tightly linked economically after decades of free trade under a treaty signed in the 1990s, known then as Nafta and updated and renamed under the Trump administration to USMCA.

The growth of mezcal in the US, brought in by businesses like Palazzi's, has been part of this shift.

Since 2003, consumption of tequila and mezcal has roughly tripled, increasing at a rate of more than 7% each year, according to Distilled Spirits Council, a trade group.

Overall since the 1990s, trade in spirits between the US and Mexico has surged by more than 4,000% percent, said the organisation, which issued a statement after the president's announcement warning that the tariffs would "significantly harm all three countries".

For months, Palazzi has been fielding nervous questions from his suppliers in Mexico, who are typically small, family owned businesses and may not survive if the tariffs are prolonged.

If it sticks, he said the 25% tax on the bottles of mezcal, tequila and rum he brings in will push up prices - and sales will drop.

"Definitely this is going to impact the business negatively. But can you really plan? No," he said. "Our strategy is roll-with-the-punches, wait and see and adapt to whatever craziness is going to unfold."

Economists say the hit from the tariffs could push the economies of Mexico and Canada into recession.

Ahead of the announcement, Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, described the looming tariffs from the US, and expected retaliation, as "existential" for many of his members.

"Look, we get that the government has got to respond in some fashion …. But at the same time we urge the government to use caution," he said, comparing tariffs on imports to chemotherapy: "It poisons your own people in order to try and fight the disease."

"It's going to have an effect everywhere," said Sophie Avernin, director of De Grandes Viñedos de Francia in Mexico, noting that many Americans own Mexican alcohol brands and Modelo beer is actually owned by a Belgian company.

Trump, who has embraced tariffs as a tool to address issues far removed from trade, has dismissed concerns about any collateral damage to the economy in the US.

But analysts have warned the measures will weigh on growth, raise prices and cost the economy jobs - roughly 286,000, according to estimates by the Tax Foundation, not including retaliation.

Those in the alcohol business said the industry had already been struggling to emerge from the shadow of the pandemic and its after-shocks, including inflation, which has prompted many Americans to cut back on dining out and drinking.

Smaller firms, who typically have less financial cushion and ability to swallow a sudden 25% jump in cost, will bear the brunt of the disruption.

"I'm pretty frustrated," said California-based importer Ben Scott, whose nine-person business Pueblo de Sabor brings in brands from Mexico such as Mal Bien and Lalocura.

"There's just a huge cost that's going to affect so many people in ways other than they're paying a couple bucks more for a cocktail, which doesn't sound like a tragedy."

Fred Sanchez has spent years pushing to expand his business, Bad Hombre Importing, a small California-based importer and distributor of Mexican agave-based spirits like Agua del Sol, and was recently working on deals in New York and Illinois.

But his potential partners started hesitating as Trump's tariff talk ramped up last year.

Now, instead of expanding, he is contemplating selling off his stock of liquor and possibly shutting down. He said he had little capacity to absorb the jump in costs and saw little scope for raising prices in the current economy.

"25% is just not something that we can realistically pass onto the consumer," he said.

Sanchez said he believed that Trump might be using tariffs as a negotiating tactic, and the tax could be short-lived. Still, for his business, damage is already done.

Bloomberg: The 15 Best New Bottles I Tried in 2024, From $26 to $26,000

Season’s greetings, spirits sippers! It’s Brad Japhe, the resident expert on the subject, reporting for duty. As is customary this time of year, I’m presenting my annual list of the absolute best bottles I encountered over the past 12 months. The stable of contenders was crowded in 2024: Of some 322 new expressions sampled, I counted no less than three dozen deserving of effusive praise. Sadly, some of those offerings are just so painfully pricey and/or excruciatingly allocated that I couldn’t, in good conscience, include them here.

Instead, my choices embody a wide variety of liquid across all categories and price points. Make no mistake, you will see bottles fetching four- or even five-figure sums—entries are organized in order of increasing cost—but it’s all relatively available for purchase. You won’t need an estate planner to broker acquisition.

But before we get to the big reveal, let’s recap the year’s major headlines. Beyond spotlighting the shape of the industry in 2024, these news items hint at where we’re headed in the months ahead.

For one thing, people aren’t paying as much for rare whiskey. A recent report from the financial advisory firm Noble & Co. indicated that the value of auctioned scotch cratered by 40% in 2024. But that hasn’t slowed the trend of formerly shuttered “ghost” distilleries rising from the grave across the Scottish landscape, as I reported this summer.

Tariffs proposed by the incoming administration mean your favorite tequila could effectively become 25% more expensive in the year ahead. And a separate trade war with the UK could persuade domestic scotch consumers to experiment with single malts from emerging markets such as India or New Zealand.

Or, perhaps they’ll start exploring American single malt, since the category is finally going to be recognized by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, after more than eight years of lobbying efforts.

But enough speculating about what’s coming. Here are my best bottles of 2024.

Alambique Serrano Rum Blend #5 — $70.Source: Vendor

Alambique Serrano Rum Blend #5

There’s more than just mezcal coming out of the highlands of Oaxaca. This artisanal brand from the steep hillsides of Santa María Tlalixtac specializes in world-class rum. In fact, you’ll be hard-pressed to find sugarcane distillate anywhere drenched in as much complexity as this 65.9%-ABV spiced-banana bomb. It’s a 50-50 blend of column spirit, aged for 27 months in ex-bourbon casks, with pot still spirit aged for 19 months in new French oak. Cut it with a splash of water to extend a tobacco and toasted almond-toned finish. Or knock it back neat, if you dare. ($70)

Hampden Great House 2024 Jamaican Rum — $130.Source: Vendor

Jamaica’s holy house of funk never disappoints when it comes to full-bodied expressions, brimming with over-ripened fruit. Although the exact recipe of this annual limited release shifts each year, it invariably involves a blend of rums that epitomize the brand’s signature style. This time around it finds form in a 57%-ABV sipper that wows with an initial wave of marmalade and cranberry relish, revealing more tropical fruit undertones as it warms in the dram. ($130)

Bloomberg: Your Next Investment Bourbon Should Be a Brandy

Illustration by Nico H. Brausch

By Christopher Ross

June 18, 2024 at 6:27 AM UTC

Bourbon collectors, I feel your pain. What was once a niche hobby for booze geeks has become a forbiddingly expensive and competitive endeavor, what with the annual Pappy Van Winkle lotteries (and heist) and secondary markets where a $2,000 bottle of 20-year Eagle Rare can leap to $14,000 in just five years.

Still, if you love the hunt for artisanal, rare spirits, have you considered pivoting from grains to grape? The warmth and woodsy flavors of single-barrel, full-strength cognac and Armagnac can closely resemble the taste of bourbon, at a more attainable price point.

“Folks who’ve had the opportunity to taste these bottles notice, wow, there’s that concentration, that similar profile of combining fruit and structure from the wood,” says Greg Faron, co-founder of new importer Bien Élevé in Washington, DC. Some vintage brandy can compare in flavor to glut-era bourbon, he says, referring to the 1970s-to-early-’90s period when distillers cleared out older, languishing whiskey stock under younger labels.

Bien Élevé joins established importers PM Spirits and Charles Neal Selections—plus upstarts such as Bhakta Spirits, from the founder of WhistlePig whiskey—as part of an expanding network of bottlers and retailers working with aficionados to build a ground floor for collecting these complex liquors.

Their biggest obstacle? The French.

See, when it comes to investment bourbon, what’s most sought-after are single-vintage bottles, ideally single-barrel, bottled at cask strength—offering a premium of intensity and purity and rarity, traceable to a specific location and point in time. But that’s exactly the opposite of how French brandy is traditionally produced.

Distillers at major cognac houses such as Hennessy and Courvoisier believe the beauty of their craft lies in artful blending; they lock up eaux-de-vie (unaged spirit distilled from grapes) from hundreds of growers to do so. There are strict brandy-making rules around grape varietals, distillation and minimum aging time in oak barrels, but blending isn’t actually a prerequisite.

“I’m French, so I can say this: The French feel they are the guardians of a tradition, which makes them not innovate whatsoever,” says PM Spirits founder Nicolas Palazzi, one of the first importers to bring unblended, collector-bait brandy to the US.

The Cognac region, Palazzi says, is particularly disincentivized to put out the kind of artisanal spirits that US buyers are clamoring for. If a producer decides to set aside a barrel for aging as a vintage cognac, a member of the Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC) must be present for its sealing. To open that cask for any reason, including if it’s leaking or damaged, they need to pay for another inspector to come out and oversee the breaking of the wax seal.

Moreover, Big Brandy doesn’t see much long-term strategy in single-barrel bottlings, as it’s only able to achieve its current sales volumes by blending spirit from different casks; the ultrapremium $4,000 Rémy Martin Louis XIII may contain as many as 1,200 eaux-de-vie, some as much as a century old. There are precious few growers in Cognac who don’t sell to the mass-market houses.

Steve Ury, a well-known former bourbon blogger, takes a cynical view of the Kentucky gold rush, so he turned his gaze toward France. He says his steadily growing Facebook group, Serious Brandy, now counts more than 3,000 members. He says American buyers have had to train smaller brandy producers to fill that desire gap between collectors and the conglomerates.

“Their first instinct was, you blend everything, you water it down to 40%—that’s what people want,” Ury says. “And we had to go and say, ‘No, that’s not what we want. We want to see those barrels. Just put ’em in a bottle. We don’t need you to do anything else.’ ”

There’s casks all over the place, all over France, sitting in garages and sheds.

Cognac houses Pasquet and Grosperrin are among producers that have gotten the memo, as well as L’Encantada Armagnac, he says, which can be “very bourbon-like. It’s dark and oaky because they don’t do as much treatment to it, they just sort of leave it in the barrel.”

Reid Bechtle, a collector in Virginia, agrees. He was so enchanted when first tasting L’Encantada’s Armagnacs in 2015 that he and fellow members of his private whiskey club—1789b, which buys whole barrels of spirits—foresaw the untapped demand and purchased three on the spot. Now, he says, L’Encantada’s fame has grown, and its small-batch, orange-wax-topped bottles command such a cult following that it’s often impossible to find at retail. “What we used to buy for $60 is now $300.”

For your own collection, this month PM Spirits is releasing a L’Encantada discovery box ($211) featuring 200‑milliliter independent bottlings of brandy distilled by three different domaines over three different decades: 1999, 2001, 2012. Dozens of years in barrel reveal beautiful tertiary aromas of dried citrus, tobacco and resin.

Cognac Frapin, a family-owned producer founded in 1270, focuses mostly on traditional aged blends, but it, too, is coming around, with help from Palazzi. A 1994 vintage released in May is a first for the maison: single-estate, single-cask, full-proof. Balancing the richness of the wood with subtle orchard fruit, vanilla and leather, it costs $265. Only 500 bottles were made.

Similarly, Bien Élevé imported a single-cask 1967 Cognac Lheraud Bons Bois ($640), perfumed with exotic spice and dried figs and elegantly rounded on the palate. “It’s become more of a focus in France, finally, for single-barrel picks,” says Faron, the Bien Élevé co-founder. Just a dozen of the 132 bottles of the Lheraud Bons Bois were allocated to the US.

I wouldn’t be surprised if major producers started earmarking exceptional casks as well, given that collectible, traditional blends have stalled. The compound annual growth rate by volume of ultrapremium-and-above French brandy was down 2% globally from 2018 to 2023, compared with ultrapremium bourbon’s 22% growth, according to IWSR, a global beverage alcohol data specialist.

“With French brandy, the extraordinary and extensive histories—over 700 years for Armagnac alone—and the tremendous ageability of these spirits, arguably far greater than most whiskeys, should mean that the possibilities for finding great spirits are near endless,” says Nima Ansari, a buyer for Astor Wines & Spirits in New York who stocks about 20 bottles of boutique brandy. Cognac can age longer than bourbon or American rye because of a cooler climate and less char on what are usually older, larger barrels.

But the ultimate factor may be the love of the hunt. As in the early days of searching for bourbon “dusties” on liquor store shelves, there’s a sense of undiscovered treasure out there, if you know where to look and strike quickly when opportunities arise.

If a vineyard hasn’t presold all its grapes to a brandy house, some farmers might have their own spirits distilled for consumption among friends and family or as an investment. “Every farm is a potential producer,” Ury says. “There’s casks all over the place, all over France, sitting in garages and sheds.”

In other words, there’s a lot of potential boutique brandy out there—and it’s all rare. Consider: If an importer comes across the private stash of an elderly couple, buys it and releases 170 bottles, it might be all that family farm ever produces.

For collectors who get a thrill from acquiring a truly one-of-a-kind spirit, it’s tough to put a price on those bragging rights. At least for now, though, a couple hundred bucks ought to do it.

Los Angeles Times: A mecca for mezcal: These are the best agave bars in L.A.

“You’ve got to put a bottle of mezcal on the ofrenda,” says Ivan Vasquez, owner of Madre Oaxacan Restaurant & Mezcaleria, with four locations across L.A. County and the largest small-batch mezcal collection in the U.S. “For me, and back in the villages, a bottle of mezcal has to be there.

“On Día de los Muertos, you drink a copita with your loved ones,” Vasquez instructs. “It’s the only spirit that keeps our loved ones alive. When I drink mezcal on Día de los Muertos, I’m reunited with my grandpa. Thanks to him, I was introduced to mezcal.”

While tequila has had a couple centuries to gain an international following, the rise of mezcal and regional spirits like sotol and bacanora is more recent. It was only in the ‘90s that mezcal gained Denomination of Origin (DO) status, which restricts legal and commercial use of the word, and paved the way for it to be sold across the globe.

The spirit, which imparts earthy tasting notes, exploded in popularity over the pandemic, partially because of the heritage involved — mezcal producers, or mezcaleros and mezcaleras, often utilize methods that have been honed across generations and are unique to their family or village. The final product, Vasquez says, delivers a flavor that can be more layered and complex than wine.

Also known as maguey, the spiky agave plant has been revered by Indigenous Mexicans for millenniums, providing food, practical items such as rope and sandals and fermented beverages like pulque. When Spanish colonizers arrived with the still, agave wine was distilled into spirits like tequila, made exclusively from agave tequilana, and mezcal, which can be made from over 40 other agave types.

“Los Angeles is like the mecca right now for agave distillates,” said Rocío Flores, a mezcalera who grew up splitting time between L.A. and Jalisco and now hosts agave tastings and educational experiences, including the program at Guerrilla Tacos. “It’s probably the one place in the world where you can find the most diverse, the most amazing mezcals that you can’t even find in Mexico in one place all together.”

The global appreciation for Mexico’s ancestral spirits has influenced the tequila industry too. For his part, Vasquez only works with small producers and serves tequila blanco exclusively — no reposados or añejos. When customers ask for corporate brands like Casamigos, he and his staff use it as an opportunity to educate.

“I tell them, ‘Let me bring you several options that are higher proof at a lower price’ and I ask them to enjoy it neat,” he says. “They’re just amazed when they try it.”

L.A. was already a great place to drink agave distillates, but these days the options are overflowing. Included on the list below are agave-focused bars that prioritize stocking small-batch producers and offer flights that encourage imbibers to sip in the traditional style. Some, like Vasquez, even sell rare bottles out of their bars. Whether you’re toasting in celebration or stocking up to savor with your ancestors on Día de los Muertos, these are the best agave bars in Los Angeles.

The World Cup of Luxury Spirits: Best Booze of 2022

It’s a global matchup for the titles in best new whiskey, gin, rum, nonalcoholic spirit, digestif and more.

By Brad Japhe
December 16, 2022 at 7:00 AM EST

The World Cup is nearing its end—as is 2022. In service of such, we’re taking a moment to memorialize the best booze of the year. What does liquor have in common with soccer, you may ask? Not a whole lot if you’re watching it live in Qatar. But under usual circumstances, well-crafted spirit, just like the Beautiful Game, is a truly global phenomenon. And just as it’s been a particularly big year for soccer, it’s been for spirits, too, with a plethora of new releases kicking around bottle shops as of late. Over the past 12 months, I sipped my way through more than 150 expressions hailing from roughly 40 different countries. For those keeping score, that’s eight more entries than the total number of national teams qualifying for the World Cup.

For fans of high-end whiskeys, rums, vodkas, gins and more, there’s almost too much to cheer; according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the US, luxury brands increased by 23% in Q2 over that same quarter of 2021. All this is to say, the field is increasingly crowded. Upon careful deliberation and review, I’ve managed to whittle it down to one-on-one matchups for every primary category of spirit, including some zero-proof entrants. But in each draw, it’s up to you to decide which side walks away with the trophy. Let’s get the ball rolling....

Group Gin: Procera Green Dot versus Three Cuts Distiller’s Release Bold Exotic.

Best Gin of 2022

Kenya versus Australia

Procera Green Dot ginWhereas most gins on the market today are made using dried juniper, this Nairobi-based distillery relies on fresh

berries from the native Juniperus procera. Its 94-proof Green Dot ($120) incorporates all parts of the treeincluding the foliage and bark. The resulting liquid offers a pine-forward nose, typical to the category, but itwarms the mouth with earthiness and a tickle of umami on the finish. It exists as that rarest of breeds: a sippinggin. Presented in a mouth-blown decanter of recycled glass, this gin exudes uniqueness inside and out.

Group Rum: Papalin Jamaica 7 Years Old versus Andrés Brugal.

Best Rum of 2022

Jamaica versus Dominican Republic

Papalin Jamaica 7 Years Old rumThis assertive banana-bomb from esteemed independent bottler Velier marks a melodious merger of twolegendary producers from opposite ends of the Caribbean island. High-ester rum from Hampden and Worthy

Park were pot-distilled and matured in their respective distilleries and warehouses before being combined into awhole greater than the sum of its parts, at about $60 a bottle. Ripened tropical fruit is on full display, and yet athoughtful balance to the blend precludes the finish from overplaying its funk.

Group Brandy: Pierre Frapin Cuvée Rabelais versus Suyo No. 1.

Best Brandy of 2022

France versus Peru

Pierre Frapin Cuvée Rabelais cognacThe Frapin family has been crafting cognac in the Charente Valley since the 13th century. Today their estateconsists of 600 acres worth of vines in the grande Champagne cru. Eau-de-vie distilled from this region is

especially well-suited for lengthy aging, as this collectible $13,000 release convincingly demonstrates. It containsliquids that are 100 years old, and yet the XO exerts a spry vitality, pirouetting across the tongue with brightcandied orange and stewed apricot. The mahogany liquid decants gracefully from a gold-necked vessel, craftedby the oldest glass manufacturer in France, Cristallerie Saint-Louis.