South Africa’s 2025 harvest season was, by all accounts, a masterpiece.
“It’s going to be one of those standout years where people will specifically search for wines from the 2025 harvest,” said Maryna Calow, communications manager at Wines of South Africa (WoSA).
British wine importer and critic, Bartholomew Broadbent, agreed.
“The 2025 vintage in South Africa was outstanding,” he told Daily Maverick. “I was recently there and tasted many wines in cask. Volumes were good, the quality exceptional.”
The grapes, nurtured through a Goldilocks season of moderate weather and minimal climatic drama, ripened to near perfection. No aggressive heat spikes. No hail storms. Even the winter dormancy was ideal, with well-timed rains and cold enough temperatures to ready the vines for an exceptional yield.
As South African wine producers prepared to bottle what some are calling some of the best quality wine ever produced, another kind of storm began to brew. One that’s political, protectionist, and unmistakably American.
A Trump-sized headache
On 2 April 2025, US president Donald Trump reached for an economic cudgel in the form of tariffs, and South African wine found itself squarely in the firing line: slapped with a 30% import duty.
The United States is South Africa’s fourth largest wine export market by value – R600mn worth of wine in 2024 to be exact, as per SAWIS.
Thanks to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), South African wines previously enjoyed zero tariffs, a saving of about R20-million per year, noted Christo Conradie, stakeholder engagement, market access, and policy manager at South Africa Wine.
Now, a 10% tariff applies during a 90-day grace period, while the 30% proposal hangs over the industry like the sword of Damocles.
“There is a mad scramble in the USA right now to import wine at the 10% tariff level before the 90-day extension ends,” Broadbent explained. “We usually ship the new vintage of wine… in July or August. This year we will ship it all in May and hope to beat the increased tariffs.”
Even if shipments sneak through customs at a lower rate, the damage has already been done.
“Importers may have cancelled orders from South Africa and turned to bulk producers in Chile and Australia,” Broadbent says. “Once prices go up, even if tariffs are cancelled, most wine companies will not reduce prices back to pre-tariff levels.”
"Before the wine even hit the water, some US importers pulled out."
Calow confirmed the exodus. Building relationships with importers took years, she added, and with global wine consumption declining, competition was already brutal.
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