Why do young people tend to shy away from wine?

Sadly, besides my girlfriend’s minor interest in wine, I haven’t been able to convert any of my friends into the wine drinking fold. Aside from being a lousy pitchman, I believe a combination of prevalent beer culture, hefty prices, and a sea of uninspired wines from mega conglomerates are to blame.

I thought hipsters were moving into wine in huge numbers. No?

Because nobody plays quarters while drinking wine.

Cost, impenetrability, and snob image. I’m 31 years old and I have one friend who is a wine enthusiast, and maybe a couple more who have a passing interest. Many of my friends think of themselves as restaurant/cooking/food aficionados. The harsh truth is that it takes time and money to become serious about wine, and both of those are in short supply among all people, but especially young people.

Or Beer Pong, or Flip cup. Plus, red wine is really unpleasant to throw up compared to beer.

i began shifting my preferences around the age of 26 - now 33, I find that more of my friends share my interest in wine than did back then. for me, the shift coincided with my social life. in college and immediately after, i would go out to bars with friends 3-4 times a week and never ordered anything other than cheap beer and shots. soon, i began to slow down…went out less, and began to change the type of venue too. i was happy to sit at home, open a bottle of wine and read a good book.

anyways, that’s just one person’s story…the pace of change (if there even is one) varies radically from person-to-person. social media makes is pretty to find people with similar interests as do attending local wine shop tastings - that’s how i began connecting with wine collectors in DC back in 2006/2007.

Very well said.

I see more and more of my friends (I’m 30) drinking wine. Whenever we go out to eat they don’t order cocktails anymore, but order wine. But I think it also depends on the person. I think most professionals gear toward wine.

Wait, you are a professional?

A young Matt Latuchie subsisting on cheap beer and shots? Is this the twilight zone?

I’m trying to picture Michael “Dr. Jura” Lewis doing the same.

I think beer is faster to embrace/discover new interpretations of itself MUCH faster than wine, which isn’t necessarily wine’s fault. A brewery can make a beer one year in a small batch, then turn around and make 10X that amount the next year. Look at the proliferation of the Gose style; almost nobody made one 2-3 years ago, now it’s the new hot item. New breweries emerge every year that are suddenly highly sought after, and pretty much anyone can at least taste some of their stuff at a bar. Finding the elite wines are much harder to come by.

Wine-pong is yet to take off.

You probably won’t hear this part very often…

…although I enjoyed wine in my early 20’s due to a knowledgeable roommate and some family connection…

…but this part may apply…

…when I got a little older and really started working and even after being married, I would rather drink beer or scotch, especially since it is pretty much practically and financially impossible to explore wine in Ohio restaurants. However, when we had kids and began eating home 5-6 nights per week, I returned to wine as pleasant and exciting part of dinner.

To me the distinction is that to really enjoy wine as an enthusiastic pursuit one has to have the desire and opportunity to go beyond just enjoying a nice drink. While there are perhaps several dozens of interesting whiskies, and now a few hundred such beers, there are literally thousands of such wines, at all price levels and styles, and new ones every year. Most of them require some sort of accompanying food to appreciate best, and so require stable settings (home, dinner, enabling friends, encouraging restaurants) which are often simply absent from people’s lives in their early adulthood.

Funny, as I approach double your age, I tend to drink more cocktails than wine at dinner unless I’m at a BYO (primarily a function of cost, immature wines and shitty lists)

+1

The cost issue is huge. For your average person, i.e. not coming from a wealthy family who paid for all their college, who is recently out of university, gotten a job and is now living on their own, paying back student loans, maybe starting a family, etc. buying wine is pretty low on the priority list. Let’s be realistic, good wine isn’t as cheap as it used to be. You’re looking at least around the $35-65+ range for a decent middle end bottle of wine at retail. In a restaurant it’s probably 3 times that. What late 20 something young adult is going to have that kinda spare cash lying around. Not many. For that kind of money you can buy a lot of good beer and spirits.

Though cocktails have gotten vastly more interesting in the US over the course of the last decade.

Absolutely agree

David: I tend to get cocktails instead of ordering wine off lists. But regardless of what I do my friends will still order off the list.

What are you guys talking about? I’ve been spraying fine champagne on myself and my friends since college.

I can say that in the case of my younger daughter being a vegetarian leans her towards beer.
Vegetarianism has become mainstream over the last 30-40 years, and the same with spicy food.
When I eat spicy vegetarian food I go with beer too.

P Hickner