"Why Aren't More Millennials Buying Wine?"

Here are some basic truths about premium wine sales coming from the point-of-view of a Boomer. There are some issues with wine marketing and sales expectations.

Oh Emm Gee, we're drinking red wine!  😄
image from foodabletv.com

 

• First, let's get this out of the way. We have split up and named various generations. The reason for this is apparently to stereotype and pit one generation against another. I see nothing else that's come from this. It doesn't belong in marketing.
  
  
• Younger people aren't at their full earning potential. Even the ones that got good jobs out of college. Certainly not the ones working retail looking for a break.
  
  
• Other things burdening the current 20- and 30-somethings are overpriced college degrees, overpriced housing, and stagnating wages (unless you happen to be in tech).
  
  
• You realize that premium wines are luxury goods, right? Like designer labels, 4,000 square foot homes, and Mercedes vehicles, you don't find their key demographic to be the under 30 crowd.
  
  
• The big buyers of those wines are folks in their 40s and 50s to maybe early 60s. This isn't scientific, this is me working in a tasting room. It ain't rocket science, it's economics. It will continue to be people in those age groups, regardless of the name given to their generation.
  
  
• So maybe marketing to the 20-somethings isn't really the way to go. "Oh, dear," I can hear a winery saying, "You mean our TikTok account isn't bringing in new customers?"
  
  
• Rosé was kind of an unintended genius move in that here's a wine from premium wineries that the younger crowd can buy. Rosé sales took off not because it's such a great wine, but because it's affordable.
  
  
• Younger drinkers are less tied to traditions so boxed wine, canned wine, and orange wine is, or should be, aimed more at this demographic.
  
  
• Wine writing is mostly aimed at premium and super-premium wines. Just as important as the Top 100 Wines of the Year would be a Top 100 Wines Under 20 Bucks, but that would mean the professional reviewers would have to taste all those cheap wines. Eeew.