What tariffs mean for fatcork grower Champagne

In terms of the human experience, overcoming hardships is about as universal as it gets, and if we’re lucky, weathering the storm makes us better, stronger — and more resilient. 

As you know, the most recent uproar for fatcork has been about tariffs, and, at least for now, what we’ve landed on is this: Like all EU goods, Champagne that we import from our grower-producers in France is subject to a 15% tariff that we are required to pay to the U.S. Treasury. To put it into perspective, what we now pay in tariffs is the equivalent of one fatcork employee’s salary for the entire year. While this is a significant blow to our small business, it’s far from a deadly one. Tariffs may have made our business of bringing you the world’s best Champagne more challenging, but we’ve been tackling hurdles for 15 years, and we’re not going anywhere.

The 15% tariff on grower Champagne is here (at least for now), but fatcork’s still the best at bringing you a Champagne experience you won’t find anywhere else. To make sure of it, we have worked and will continue to work closely with our growers on a reliable plan for the arduous present and an unpredictable future. Thankfully, we've built a trusting relationship that allows us — and them — to be flexible. We’ve tapped into our creativity and small-business agility to find workable solutions that benefit us all.

You may, indeed, notice a small increase in our prices when you shop single bottles online or in the cave, but we’re doing everything we can to minimize the impact and working harder than ever to make every sip absolutely worth it. We will continue to bring you rare, limited-production, organic cuvées, packages and gifts that you can only find at fatcork. 

Additionally, we will not be raising prices on our Champagne club this year. In fact, many of our club members across the country are benefiting from a reduction in shipping costs that we were able to negotiate over the past year.