When I made the May selections in mid-February, my intended teaching point was going to be the effect of tariffs on wine. While it does not get a lot of attention in the US, in March 2021, the Chinese government imposed tariffs of up to 218% on wines from Australia in retaliation for subsidies and the dumping of steel in the country. The effects were catastrophic to the Australian wine industry, who shipped 1.1 billion dollars of wine to China in 2019. Things were so bad that Treasury Wine Estates, the multinational corporation which owns Penfolds (Australia) and Beringer (California) among many others, began labeling the wines from California as Penfolds. This is because Penfolds was the #1 brand sold in China before the tariffs. Thankfully, the two countries came to an agreement in March, 2024, so my theme was shot, but that is ok, research discovered some new angles.
As it turns out there are a couple of good teaching points about these wines but after two months of commerce driven themes this month we will return to the vineyards. In the case of both selections they come from relatively cool climates and they are the result of a lot of selection work in the vineyard and at the cellar door. Although I am not going to dive too deep into the topic, both wines are also made by female winemakers.
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