I wonder if decades of ignoring changing customer expectations, overpricing and speculating, sommelier culture that never cared for making wine accessible, and stuffy white table cloth service have anything to do with it…
unjustphoenix
Mine is more balanced between red and white!
**Haha! * cries ***
chikenparmfanatic
A lot of people are cutting out alcohol. I know several people in the last year who stopped drinking. Interestingly, as I get older, I drink more wine but less of everything else.
twoflat
I stopped drinking this year… sorry!
Ynneb82
I love wine but it’s bad for my health. As the article said, I drink less but better.
urdit
I’d wager that this seems to be a pretty important thing to note when discussing reduced consumption of wine:
The OIV said that the consumer is now paying about 30 per cent more for a bottle now than in 2019-2020 and overall consumption has fallen by 12 per cent since then.
Anecdotally looking at wine on restaurant lists where the lowest bottle prices are north of $200USD and glasses for $25 and up compared to a cocktail around $15-20 makes a pretty compelling case to forego the wine. Even bring long a bottle at corkage fees of $95 is pretty absurd imo too.
Perhaps making wine out of reach and uneconomical has consequences.
Uptons_BJs
I actually have a theory that wine is undermarketed. After all, if you look at global per capita consumption: [https://i.imgur.com/9AHOYxo.jpeg](https://i.imgur.com/9AHOYxo.jpeg)
Wine is rapidly declining when beer and liquor is flat. Here’s my take:
When you turn on the TV – Liquor ads outnumber wine and beer ads like a million to one right? I see beer ads everywhere, I see liquor ads everywhere. Beer companies sponsor professional sports, Beer companies have billboards, beer companies pay for product placement in movies. When was the last time you saw a wine ad?
I think it comes down to industry structure. Think about it – The big liquor and beer brands sell a shit ton of bottles. If say, a TV ad spot costs $1 million, and you sell 100 million bottles, it amortizes down to 1 cent per bottle. Beer companies can afford to advertise.
There’s like maybe a handful of wine brands that move that kind of volume – Barefoot, Yellowtail, etc. Your average winery simply does not move enough volume to make advertising worth it. Are you going to pay for a million dollar ad spot when your winery moves say, 50,000 bottles?
At some level all the alcohol categories compete against each other right? They’re replacement products. So when you see an ad that tells you to say, “Drink Heineken” Heineken is stealing some customers from other beer brands, but they’re also convincing some wine customers to drink Heineken instead.
LuciusUrsus
The newer generations largely prefer cannabis.
BothCondition7963
These articles and statistics keep popping up and showing the same thing. Of course, one big thing is younger people are just drinking less overall. One thing I’ve noticed though is that when younger people want cheaper alcoholic drinks they’re going for macro beers and seltzers. When younger people want more expensive drinks they’re going for craft cocktails. I see essentially no interest in those under 35 in pounding yellowtail or spending extra money on a classified Bordeaux, Premier Cru Burgundy, or Barolo. I don’t have all the answers, but I think winemakers and associations need to think about how they can convince these consumers that they should be buying wine instead of a 30 rack or $25 gin swizzle with exotic botanicals. For a while I think relying on cute, colorful, quasi-artistic labels was the plan and had a moment, but that’s clearly not a sustainable marketing plan in the long-term.
Apprehensive-Gear564
I’m wondering if young people dislike alcohol because hangovers (compared to cannabis). I read the tannins and dehydration could be the culprit, but a winemaker once told me that sulfites have that side effect. You can’t get headaches if it’s a natural wine, he said. I haven’t fully validated his theory yet
Ill-Quote-4383
I looked heavily into working for a liquor store or starting my own shop up or something and it’s not economical where I live. I’m in my late 20s and have done a lot of wine touring for my age in the United States. Truly the way liquor is set up makes it impossible. It’s unaffordable, inaccessible, and worst of all theres no good way to start learning. Breweries/distilleries have the benefit of being able to open basically anywhere to support a local alcohol culture. Wineries are largely limited to certain areas and even though my home state has vineyard incentives and winery incentives specifically the wine isn’t good enough to support too much more than already exists.
I’ve debated starting a club too and having wine classes but if I charge for those I could be in legal trouble for serving some people a glass or two of wine. There is no affordable workable solution to get younger people into wine. It’s been setup to stop any of that. Whatever shops do offer good info and have programs are too intimidating for people typically.
I don’t have the funds at my age at all to support starting a group.
Quirky-Camera5124
a lot has to do with local culture and the availability of lower priced wine. i live in California and on occasions where beer might be served in montana, wine is served here. i never visit wineries and formal tastings, and refuse to pay for a huge markup in restaurants. my price point is 17 bucks or less, and we drink wine with every dinner at home. while most grocery stores overprice their wine, vons, the california name for safeway elsewhere, has fair prices, especially for white wine. most of my wine i buy at total or on line, especially from wtso. all that snobbery stuff i do without, and cannot afford what they are tasting and selling.sure, i will like that 40 dollar bottle, but i cannot afford to buy it. i drink around the fringes of the wine world, south africa, uruguay, argentina and chile, portugal, the balkans, turkey and lebanonq, AND IN THE US, PASO ROBLES AND WALLA WALLA WASH.
No_Eggplant6269
Well maybe address the cost of a decent bottle of wine. California wines are a joke with their prices. You can get a good bottle of bourbon for $60 that will go a lot further than a $60 bottle of wine.
Z28Daytona
I think it’s due to two areas: price and marketing.
Markups in restaurants are outrageous. $8 retail to $50 at a restaurant. $45 retail to $90 restaurant price. Plus tip means they need $40+ to open a bottle.
Restaurants are a type of marketing for the newbies. But at $50, and it will not be the best, it’s out of thought.
16 Comments
Drinking wine… in this economy?!
I wonder if decades of ignoring changing customer expectations, overpricing and speculating, sommelier culture that never cared for making wine accessible, and stuffy white table cloth service have anything to do with it…
Mine is more balanced between red and white!
**Haha! * cries ***
A lot of people are cutting out alcohol. I know several people in the last year who stopped drinking. Interestingly, as I get older, I drink more wine but less of everything else.
I stopped drinking this year… sorry!
I love wine but it’s bad for my health. As the article said, I drink less but better.
I’d wager that this seems to be a pretty important thing to note when discussing reduced consumption of wine:
The OIV said that the consumer is now paying about 30 per cent more for a bottle now than in 2019-2020 and overall consumption has fallen by 12 per cent since then.
Anecdotally looking at wine on restaurant lists where the lowest bottle prices are north of $200USD and glasses for $25 and up compared to a cocktail around $15-20 makes a pretty compelling case to forego the wine. Even bring long a bottle at corkage fees of $95 is pretty absurd imo too.
Perhaps making wine out of reach and uneconomical has consequences.
I actually have a theory that wine is undermarketed. After all, if you look at global per capita consumption: [https://i.imgur.com/9AHOYxo.jpeg](https://i.imgur.com/9AHOYxo.jpeg)
Wine is rapidly declining when beer and liquor is flat. Here’s my take:
When you turn on the TV – Liquor ads outnumber wine and beer ads like a million to one right? I see beer ads everywhere, I see liquor ads everywhere. Beer companies sponsor professional sports, Beer companies have billboards, beer companies pay for product placement in movies. When was the last time you saw a wine ad?
I think it comes down to industry structure. Think about it – The big liquor and beer brands sell a shit ton of bottles. If say, a TV ad spot costs $1 million, and you sell 100 million bottles, it amortizes down to 1 cent per bottle. Beer companies can afford to advertise.
There’s like maybe a handful of wine brands that move that kind of volume – Barefoot, Yellowtail, etc. Your average winery simply does not move enough volume to make advertising worth it. Are you going to pay for a million dollar ad spot when your winery moves say, 50,000 bottles?
At some level all the alcohol categories compete against each other right? They’re replacement products. So when you see an ad that tells you to say, “Drink Heineken” Heineken is stealing some customers from other beer brands, but they’re also convincing some wine customers to drink Heineken instead.
The newer generations largely prefer cannabis.
These articles and statistics keep popping up and showing the same thing. Of course, one big thing is younger people are just drinking less overall. One thing I’ve noticed though is that when younger people want cheaper alcoholic drinks they’re going for macro beers and seltzers. When younger people want more expensive drinks they’re going for craft cocktails. I see essentially no interest in those under 35 in pounding yellowtail or spending extra money on a classified Bordeaux, Premier Cru Burgundy, or Barolo. I don’t have all the answers, but I think winemakers and associations need to think about how they can convince these consumers that they should be buying wine instead of a 30 rack or $25 gin swizzle with exotic botanicals. For a while I think relying on cute, colorful, quasi-artistic labels was the plan and had a moment, but that’s clearly not a sustainable marketing plan in the long-term.
I’m wondering if young people dislike alcohol because hangovers (compared to cannabis). I read the tannins and dehydration could be the culprit, but a winemaker once told me that sulfites have that side effect. You can’t get headaches if it’s a natural wine, he said. I haven’t fully validated his theory yet
I looked heavily into working for a liquor store or starting my own shop up or something and it’s not economical where I live. I’m in my late 20s and have done a lot of wine touring for my age in the United States. Truly the way liquor is set up makes it impossible. It’s unaffordable, inaccessible, and worst of all theres no good way to start learning. Breweries/distilleries have the benefit of being able to open basically anywhere to support a local alcohol culture. Wineries are largely limited to certain areas and even though my home state has vineyard incentives and winery incentives specifically the wine isn’t good enough to support too much more than already exists.
I’ve debated starting a club too and having wine classes but if I charge for those I could be in legal trouble for serving some people a glass or two of wine. There is no affordable workable solution to get younger people into wine. It’s been setup to stop any of that. Whatever shops do offer good info and have programs are too intimidating for people typically.
I don’t have the funds at my age at all to support starting a group.
a lot has to do with local culture and the availability of lower priced wine. i live in California and on occasions where beer might be served in montana, wine is served here. i never visit wineries and formal tastings, and refuse to pay for a huge markup in restaurants. my price point is 17 bucks or less, and we drink wine with every dinner at home. while most grocery stores overprice their wine, vons, the california name for safeway elsewhere, has fair prices, especially for white wine. most of my wine i buy at total or on line, especially from wtso. all that snobbery stuff i do without, and cannot afford what they are tasting and selling.sure, i will like that 40 dollar bottle, but i cannot afford to buy it. i drink around the fringes of the wine world, south africa, uruguay, argentina and chile, portugal, the balkans, turkey and lebanonq, AND IN THE US, PASO ROBLES AND WALLA WALLA WASH.
Well maybe address the cost of a decent bottle of wine. California wines are a joke with their prices. You can get a good bottle of bourbon for $60 that will go a lot further than a $60 bottle of wine.
I think it’s due to two areas: price and marketing.
Markups in restaurants are outrageous. $8 retail to $50 at a restaurant. $45 retail to $90 restaurant price. Plus tip means they need $40+ to open a bottle.
Restaurants are a type of marketing for the newbies. But at $50, and it will not be the best, it’s out of thought.
You needed an article to tell you this?