Millennials and Wine

[Christos M.]

I'm another Millennial here. The biggest influence on my wine drinking has easily been 1. friends, 2. experiences with wine, and 3. collecting wine. I love hearing what friends are trying and I also love opening a bottle with them to try. Being able to go to a restaurant and to have some knowledge to pick out a wine to drink at the table just makes the night that much better. Next going to different regions and visiting the winemakers to get a feel for how they develop their wines. Lastly, I love the chase of finding bottles and learning about wine. Nothing better than getting a "white whale" bottle or finding something that is hard to get.

[Cindy N]

To add to the discussion, I, too, am a millennial wine enthusiast. My wine journey started when I was 21 and found myself at a local wine retail shop. There, I was exposed to old world wines. I loved it so much that I became part of the team not too long after stepping foot there. I wasn't exposed to many popular or culty wines there, or I hadn't realized their popularity then. As small a wine shop as we are, we aren't able to obtain allocation to most fine wines out there (probably best for my wallet ). I am glad to have learned and experienced classic wines of reverence. Eventually, I started following sommeliers on Instagram and local fine wine retailers, which expanded my worldview on fine wines (DRC, Roumier, Ramonet, etc, etc). I can only dream of having these wines to this day, but I still enjoy reading about them in the meantime. Then, of course, you can't follow all of these somms without having other wine accounts popping up on your explore page. Wine bloggers/"influencers" started filling up my feed and that's when I started picking up on new/organic/limited produced wines/winemakers (ex: De Moor Chablis and Maison des Joncs -- the latter actually was quite interesting, but delicious to taste) as well as the discussion on "clean wines" .

From discussion with my friends who are very new to wine, they seem to pick up on wines (mainly lambruscos, rosé, natural wines) through local wine shops, which seems to be doing well with marketing on Instagram.

In short, for me my path through wine exploration are in this order:
1. retail wine job
2. other fine wine retailers
3. Instagram
3a. sommeliers
3b. wine "influencers"

[Jason T]

To add to the discussion, I, too, am a millennial wine enthusiast. My wine journey started when I was 21 and found myself at a local wine retail shop. There, I was exposed to old world wines. I loved it so much that I became part of the team not too long after stepping foot there. I wasn't exposed to many popular or culty wines there, or I hadn't realized their popularity then. As small a wine shop as we are, we aren't able to obtain allocation to most fine wines out there (probably best for my wallet ). I am glad to have learned and experienced classic wines of reverence. Eventually, I started following sommeliers on Instagram and local fine wine retailers, which expanded my worldview on fine wines (DRC, Roumier, Ramonet, etc, etc). I can only dream of having these wines to this day, but I still enjoy reading about them in the meantime. Then, of course, you can't follow all of these somms without having other wine accounts popping up on your explore page. Wine bloggers/"influencers" started filling up my feed and that's when I started picking up on new/organic/limited produced wines/winemakers (ex: De Moor Chablis and Maison des Joncs -- the latter actually was quite interesting, but delicious to taste) as well as the discussion on "clean wines" .

From discussion with my friends who are very new to wine, they seem to pick up on wines (mainly lambruscos, rosé, natural wines) through local wine shops, which seems to be doing well with marketing on Instagram.

In short, for me my path through wine exploration are in this order:
1. retail wine job
2. other fine wine retailers
3. Instagram
3a. sommeliers
3b. wine "influencers"

Cindy, that's awesome that you found old world wines at 21!!! I was mid-30s when I finally made the discovery. Probably have a year or two closer to retirement as a result of the late discovery. But oh, if I knew then what I know now....

[AstridKG]

I am an older millennial (in some categorizations, I am GenX). My main sources of information are:
- tastings at local wine bars,
- descriptions on online retailers' websites or B&M shelf talkers (some of them used in the negative sense.. If it's highly rated by certain critics, or contains the word "jammy" or equivalents, I avoid)
- wine podcasts
- salespeople at my local wine store who have given me good recommendations
- wine travel

[Timothy WilsonDBA]

I think that specialists will learn about the appearance of new wines via the Internet (catalogs, blogs, producers' websites), at exhibitions, from the producers themselves (if they have their contacts).

[Rich K0rz€nk0]

Online is the number one winner, hands down, given all that's out there. Even in a LWS, people (all + millennials) fact check prices online for "new" wines, so there's that. Its just a broader canvas to bounce your opinion off of and costs nothing.

What resonates though, let's start with emotion. If I had a trusted source or an inner circle of knowledgeable friends extending out to sources either reinforcing online or pushing me to look online at thing they trust, that's building credibility. They are more likely to trust and buy. Forums come in to play here, and that is more group thought influenced. Informed, yet prone to bias as a newbie (a millennial), until they figure themselves out. However there is a benefit that it has past a sniff test. "New" wines pop up daily, I can have one tomorrow for you to buy.

The fact is "new" wines come and go and there are a hoard of people pushing them regardless. The reliable names don't become reliable from online. You are rarely first. They come from places like here. Folks that live in the area and know the guy that sweat it out, or can attest to a wine as bonafide because they have had tastings or collected for a duration before it was a thing. And not eveything is known in this forum, so its some work. Wine becomes an investment of time first and then money if done right.

Be prepared to read through the standard push campaigning to sell a "new" wine. Some glitter, some catch phrases, only have it now and rare. A crazy score on an unknown and someone got paid off, a "sure" winner from a lesser vintage (the only one), a limited time offer that you need to do now before it goes away. Red flags.

[twright]

Online is the number one winner, hands down, given all that's out there. Even in a LWS, people (all + millennials) fact check prices online for "new" wines, so there's that. Its just a broader canvas to bounce your opinion off of and costs nothing.

I would agree with online as the key method here. Making information easy to access without separate searching makes for a smooth experience. I spend a lot of my day tinkering with various systems and researching specific use cases; most days I want to leave that level of detail behind at the office and want to just click, read background & peer/pro reviews, buy, ship

[MaxSchwartzapfel]

As a millennial collector (read wine geek), internet research has taught me the most, and pointed me in the direction of quality. That being said, I think I'm an exception in that many of my friends who buy wine to drink immediately (or near future) are really learning from others who do the research. Most of your average consumers are going based on recommendations from a friend they think is knowledgable, or something they tried at a restaurant chosen for them by the somm.

[MaxSchwartzapfel]

Online is the number one winner, hands down, given all that's out there. Even in a LWS, people (all + millennials) fact check prices online for "new" wines, so there's that. Its just a broader canvas to bounce your opinion off of and costs nothing.

What resonates though, let's start with emotion. If I had a trusted source or an inner circle of knowledgeable friends extending out to sources either reinforcing online or pushing me to look online at thing they trust, that's building credibility. They are more likely to trust and buy. Forums come in to play here, and that is more group thought influenced. Informed, yet prone to bias as a newbie (a millennial), until they figure themselves out. However there is a benefit that it has past a sniff test. "New" wines pop up daily, I can have one tomorrow for you to buy.

The fact is "new" wines come and go and there are a hoard of people pushing them regardless. The reliable names don't become reliable from online. You are rarely first. They come from places like here. Folks that live in the area and know the guy that sweat it out, or can attest to a wine as bonafide because they have had tastings or collected for a duration before it was a thing. And not eveything is known in this forum, so its some work. Wine becomes an investment of time first and then money if done right.

Be prepared to read through the standard push campaigning to sell a "new" wine. Some glitter, some catch phrases, only have it now and rare. A crazy score on an unknown and someone got paid off, a "sure" winner from a lesser vintage (the only one), a limited time offer that you need to do now before it goes away. Red flags.

great post. sorting through the sales pitches flooding my inbox consumes a greater part of my day.

[Nathan T.]

Kind of late here, but definitely a really interesting topic, something that I have been thinking about. I'm 25 and didn't really get into wine and alcohol until about 2-3 years and I now have a 100+ bottle "collection" (nothing probably compared to all of you), but I have slowly been introducing my friends to wines and whiskies. My friends are those that never really appreciated alcohol since they're mostly used to copious amounts of beer at college kickbacks.

I made an Instagram account to follow as many CA wineries and breweries as possible, just to see, and I think that a lot of them are producing great content. But I think it lacks a certain...flair? for millennials to stay committed to watching hour long videos of tasting notes, or interviewers with winemakers. It's very industry oriented content, and I think that creative content needs to be catchy to lure some more people our age into wines, etc.

Anyways, very interesting insight from all of you! Will definitely be following this thread!

[Jason L.]

Really interesting thread and I just read a lot of good observations!

The one thing I'd add is that I think a fair number of "seasoned" wine lovers, wineries and wine marketers hope to someday crack the code of selling wine to millennials but never have I seen any of them try to learn from and love this new target demographic.

[Jay Rohela]

Wine travel is a biggie. When wife and I explored Napa/Sonoma, we instantly became wine “snobs” and signed up for various library memberships.

[Rick Davis]

I'm not sure millenials are any different from other wine consumers, other than that most of them haven't had a lot of experience with wines. As such the most important things are to speak to what makes your wine different and thus unique. Is it a new varietall,different approach to winemaking or a great vineyard? Speak to those with your packaging,and marketing. Remember that a big part of what is being purchased (the first time) is the preception of what you're about created by your marketing.

[Zachary Mancini]

Being a millennial. It was my uncle who is a wine fanatic. Once I had bottles from his collection I was hooked. The second way was hearing about other high end wineries from high end wineries I would visit.