The bigger problem, though, is the wine-drinking consumer. Some 58% of consumers over the age of 65—essentially, the baby boomer generation—prefer wine to other alcoholic beverages. All other demographics are nearly 30 points lower. Even worse for vineyards is that younger consumers aren’t as interested in wine.
“The bottom line is for every consumer over 60 who stops consuming wine; they are replaced by younger consumers with a mindshare of wine half that of their elders. Time is not on our side,” the report reads. “We must show the will to change and the creativity to evolve and adopt a new approach that retains current customers while appealing to a more diverse population.”
Based on this Silicon Valley Bank (they still exist?) report:
As much as I don’t seek out “natural” wine, I think it’s nice to see more and more places (e.g., wine bars, restaurants, etc.) focus on “natural” wines, which are often more affordable and, I think, seen as more authentic by younger consumers. As a Millennial, I feel like a lot of my peers get their start or get more interested in wine due to “natural” wine.
In general, however, I think younger consumers could be a great market for wine, but there are huge barriers to entry (namely, price and knowledge) that need to be addressed to open up this potential flood gate.
Very much this. London has a vibrant natural wine scene and while there’s folks of all ages there, people at my age (mid 40’s) are the senior crowd. The wines aren’t for everyone (though, as with all wines, there’s a lot of good among the bad), but there’s an unmistakable verve in these places.
Younger people, Gen Z are less interested in alcohol in general. NA beer is booming right now and it’s rare you don’t see a “mocktail” section on the menu of the newer trendy restaurants.
Affordability. Millennials and future generations are dealing with MASSIVE education dept and for many the thought of home ownership seems almost unattainable. Discretionary income is limited as a result and wine is a pretty pricy luxury.
Mass market wine generally sucks. While there are plenty of value to be had at a local bottle shop, most shop at the grocery store for their booze. For the most party it’s all pretty low quality “manipulated” wine controlled by like 3 conglomerates. I’d rather drink most anything in the beer aisle before drinking a $10-$20 bottle in the wine aisle.
The problem here is that too many “natural” wines still are bad wines. Yes, it’s improved over the past decade. But a young consumer who orders an unpleasant glass is likely to go to a brewed or distilled beverage next time, if they choose alcohol at all.
If there was any good news, it would be that people are living longer, so even if they come to wine late they have more time to enjoy it. Also, although consumption is stagnant if not down, the average spend still seems to be going up.
The same is true with traditional wine as well. And as I’ve said before (when this has come up in other threads), just like traditional wines, for a lot of people, it comes down to hand sales.
I’m not massively into natural wines (I think literally less than .05% of my collection qualifies), but I do enjoy going to natural wine bars from time to time. A lot of places will be very up front if a particular wine is out there. I’ve had a very high hit rate, with duds being a rarity. Do I need to find what works for my palate? Yeah. But again, how is that different than trudging through the oceans of garbage traditional wine out there?
I’ll add, I think the barriers to enjoying wine are too high. There’s a lot to know, in order to weed out some of the crap, and to have a higher success rate. That’s either not obvious to people, a lot of work, or often perceived as too intimidating to do more than dip a toe.
Beer, spirits and craft cocktails are just so much easier to deal with for a new person (in my opinion). Sure, with craft cocktails, you may not always know the ingredients, but you know a competent bartender / bar program is going to make something roughly balanced and interesting, and it’s easy to comprehend what each ingredient in the cocktail contributes, with either a bit of work or a quick conversation with the bartender. Beer, you can at least go by style as a rough proxy for how much you’ll like it, though there’s a significant amount of variance by producer of craft cocktail I guess to… I just don’t go to the types of places that have the downside
But with wine…. Grape, region, style, vintage, is it ready? Is it not? Has the bottle been open to long? Is it another boring list put together by a distributor because the restaurant either can’t be bothered / doesn’t care to / can’t afford to? That doesn’t really inspire people to explore further.
How does someone get past that? I have no idea. I got into it through my wife, who got into it through her parents. But that’s such a tougher path than going up to some marginal bar and having a great craft beer experience. I’m not sure how to make it easier either without screwing up a lot that is good about this thing of ours.
I’d love for more people to be into wine, and to see the tremendous joy that it can bring. But I don’t know how to make that happen more frequently and by all indications neither does the industry itself.
reading these threads is always so interesting to me. i’ve considered so many different explanations as to why it’s become so hard to get younger people into wine. what i keep coming back to is that wine culture is deeply unappealing to most young people. natural wine is the closest thing to a “stepping stone” - it’s something they can discover that’s their own, it’s a wine of the bar and restaurant scene, the bottle price is usually a bit lower - and yet it’s still a harrowing scene full of gatekeepers and blowhards. why does it have to be so difficult?
i’ve always kind of thought that wine’s biggest calling card was y’know, being the best tasting drink in the world. even “lousy” corporate wine is still arguably better tasting than the majority of soft drinks, juices, simple cocktails and beer. but i’ve never really seen wine ever try to market itself on simply being delicious - and when novices get really excited about things like moscato d’asti or taylor’s port or josh cellars or whatever, there’s literally no lessons learned, no outreach…it’s always seen as some blip in the trends of the unwashed masses rather than a big blinking sign that says people want to drink tasty wine at fair prices (at least while they start their journey in wine).
at least gallo is advertising during playoff football, those barefoot ads are a literal godsend.
With all due respect, I have to disagree. IMO the number of entry-level supermarket-type wines out there that are unpleasant is next to nothing. The number of these wines that are boringly bland is high enough to make me cry in my beer. Although the situation has improved dramatically over the past ten years, the % of “natural” wines out there that are spoiled and/or aggressively unpleasant is high enough to drive me to beer.
Maine is a great restaurant state. A lot of our better places serve “natural” wines, usually with a caveat (either on the list or from the server). Even as a guy who tries to be tolerant, give the benefit of the doubt, my rejection rate is ~50%
One of the things that may be worth adding to your consideration is that many young and new wine drinkers are choosing their beverages based off of label, story, or experience, rather than up front flavor. They’re introduced to brands and experiences before they’re introduced to taste, simply because of the way wine shopping works.
This doesn’t seem to be the case here in France or in Canada. A lot of natural wines, most with small productions, are actually pricier than “unnatural” () wines. But I do agree that the movement has been very positive for the wine scene.
Sure, you can certainly find “natural” wines that are super expensive, but I think a lot of the ones I see at wine bars and hip restaurants, and even a lot in stores with a natural wine section, tend to be less expensive.
There seems to be a great interest in trying out wine from the younger crowd here in Copenhagen. People get into it through the food scene and the natural wine scene, which has matured a lot here over the past 15 years. But I am not sure that translates into actual wine drinkers where wine is the top pick.
If im allowed to be a bit black and white about it, then wine are for geeks and people with a certain income (often both). I am in my 30’s and most of the people I know that are into wine does have a decent income. And by into wine i mean more than the occasional glass.
The quality of beer and spirits now a day are just so high that it is hard to be competitive.
For the price of a single bottle of one of my everyday wines (around 30€±) i can buy something like ten amazing micro brewery beers. And as @Jason_T mentioned then it is much easier to understand what you get on top of that.
In 2020, a bottle of organic wine cost on average 6.14 euros compared to 4.62 euros for a conventional wine , a justified price difference because the demand for organic wine is only increasing . Phew, the earth can take a breather and have hope!
The report also claims that 11.90€ is the average price of a bottle of ‘conventional’ wine, while 13.90€ is the average price for organic wine.
And many other sources.
Natural is on average more expensive than regular wine because of yields and amount of labor.
I’d never really thought of this but I bet even Budweiser would sell less beer if they only really sold it in cans which were 5 servings. It’s a commitment for the whole evening when you open a bottle of wine. I think the trend is that people want to try different drinks to keep engaged.
Beer ran into this problem when they were putting many of their special beers into 22 ounce bottles. Most of the time nobody wanted to drink that much of one special expensive high alcohol beer. Producers have mostly wised up and gone back to 12 oz. But even retailers have figured out that many don’t want 4 or 6 bottles and now sell them as singles.
Imagine how many more wines you might try if you could pick from a wall of 187ml bottles.
+1. In Finland you definitely have to be willing to pay more for natural wine in general. They are mostly being imported in small quantities by small specialist importers which adds to the pricing and of course they are not the cheapest to begin with before transportation, warehousing etc. Plus there seems to be a trend to focus the weirder end of the stuff, which I feel makes the category challenging to enter due to the unfamiliarity of the styles (skin contact/tannic whites, light fizzy reds and whatnot).
In part it feels that way because of what I perceive to be a much bigger interest in making natural wine from the fringe/unglamourous wine regions.
i.e. those regions need a way to compete that isn’t them being reduced to fighting vainly for recognition, sold as bulk wine, made to a recipe supermarket wine, or sent off to be distilled. Natural wine allows them to find a home on shelves and in bars, without the big regional branding of the more recognised appellations.
I tend to see them priced clearly above other wines from the same area, but still less than those from the sort of wine regions us lot focus on.
It depends what you mean by “bad”. I would not call supermarket wines bad. ~100% of them are technically sound. People with little knowledge are generally not concerned with complexity. They just want to know a wine isn’t too sour or harsh or whatever. Wines outside of the natural category are very likely to provide that at relatively low prices.
At the same time, I would bet a not-insignificant number of people get “educated” by these purveyors of natural wine – told by someone who sounds very knowledgeable that “this is what real wine tastes like”. Then the wine tastes like manure/vomit/mouse cage/etc. That could be a real turnoff to the category, having been shamed away from the mass market stuff and apparently thinking the “authentic” stuff tastes disgusting (literally).
Many bars and restaurants that specialize in natural wines have lists full of wines like that, at least as I perceive them. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s doing more harm than good as far as attracting young consumers whose preferences already lean elsewhere. It’s a lot easier to order a beer or cocktail than to look like a rube in front of some hip sommelier and/or try to choke down a disgusting glass of microbial soup.
) wines. But I do agree that the movement has been very positive for the wine scene.