内容摘要：Perhaps their representatives will be more forthcoming? I get in my car and drive over to one of her neighbours - François Labet. He is the president of the Burgundy Wine Board, which represents this region's 3,500 winemakers.

Perhaps their representatives will be more forthcoming? I get in my car and drive over to one of her neighbours - François Labet. He is the president of the Burgundy Wine Board, which represents this region's 3,500 winemakers.

So far, the White House has been uncharacteristically quiet about Merz's visit.It was only briefly mentioned by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in a gaggle with reporters on Monday, and not at all during briefings at the White House and State Department on Tuesday.

Sources familiar with the visit suggested several topics that could dominate the conversation.Of these, tariffs would be among the most pressing, particularly after Trump doubled import taxes on steel and aluminium this week, prompting warnings of EU countermeasures.The US President also repeatedly expressed dismay with the speed of tariff negotiations with the EU. In May, he threatened to levy a 50% tariff on European goods, saying that it was "time that we play the game the way I know how to play the game".

Trump later backtracked and delayed the tariffs until 9 July, a move that his US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer characterised as having a "fire lit" under the EU.Germany is the EU's largest exporter to the US, leaving the country's businesses extremely agitated about any trade obstacles.

Merz, a 69-year-old reputed millionaire with a corporate background, may feel confident about going toe-to-toe with Trump, who often hails himself as the consummate "dealmaker".

Whether the Chancellor will be able to smooth the path for EU negotiators, however, remains to be seen.All of which is good for Burgundy because while general red wine consumption just keeps going down, white is holding firm, and sparkling is going up.

Also, the reds that come out of Burgundy are, according to Mr Labet, the kind consumers increasingly want, as they are typically lighter than New World reds."What is interesting to see is that there is a strong de-consumption of what we call the big reds, made in the US. Wines with a lot of alcohol, aged in new wood."

Less sun and lower temperatures in Burgundy, even with climate change, means less sugar in the grapes and lower alcohol content.Mr Labet remembers when, for 18 months of his first presidency, Donald Trump hit European wine with a 25% import tariff during a dispute over airlines.