Peter Pharos recently wrote an article entitled Wine’s Old People Problem, about the wine industry’s current dilemma (which seems a lot longer-lived than “current” suggests. We’ve been talking about this since middle cohort millennials were entering graduate school.)
The dilemma is that younger people are not buying wine which is perhaps exacerbated by the fact that younger people are not writing about wine either.
I should say that Peter warned that I should not be reading this: “Not recommended for people over the age of 55.” So be forewarned if you click on the link. But I persisted albeit with some trepidation worried about the health effects on someone well north of that age.
Peter’s thesis is that young people haven’t abandoned wine; the wine industry has abandoned young people.
A look at wine media is a good start. An assembly of prominent wine writers has all the youth and vigour of a Morris dancing group. Now, I am neither saying that there is nothing a person of a more mature vintage can offer those just released, nor am I expecting anyone to commit professional ättestupa. But when the answer to “wine critic hair colour” is the same as to “best-selling novel by EL James”, [author of 50 Shades of Grey] something seems a bit off. It was nice complaining about wine writers – until they became a species at risk of extinction. Another Instagram reel of rosé by the pool anyone?
But the age of wine writers aside, the wine industry’s attempts to appeal to a young crowd are deemed insufficient:
The, very occasional, attempts of the wine mainstream to reach out to the under-40s have all the finesse of a skateboard-carrying Steve Buscemi asking “would you like some canned wine fellow kids?”
The reason usually given for why young people are not buying wine is that they can’t afford it. I’m surely no expert on what young people spend their money on so I will take his word for it:
But, hey, you’re selling wine, not houses. People in their 20s and 30s spend tons of money on all sorts of things (video game tokens for crying out loud – see, I am old too).
Part of the problem is of course that most wine under $15 is not worth drinking. And to find the good stuff at a slightly higher price requires a good deal of hunting and experimenting. Which brings me back to the issue of wine writing. Without good writers sorting through the bargain wines it’s basically a matter of luck whether you will stumble on something to enjoy. So getting into wine on a lean bank account doesn’t look like a promising endeavor.
After laying out the many reasons why appealing to young people would be good for the health of the wine industry, Peter arrives at a fundamental truth about wine and wine lovers:
The things that will attract people in wine today are the same that has attracted people, of all ages, to wine always. The complexity, the age-worthiness, the link with other cultures, the matching with, and elevation of, food. The links, even if tenuous, with a craft product and the land. And yes, the suggestion of aspiration, the vague illusion of becoming better (of course wine doesn’t make you a better person – which product or pastime does?).
If you want to sell wine to anyone, this is what you have to sell. Selling plonk in cans to take to the beach won’t do it.
I actually think part of the problem today is a hangover from the emergence of natural wine. Wineries trying to appeal to a younger demographic jumped on the glou-glou wagon which leaves some potential wine lovers dissatisfied. Sure its fresh, low alcohol, with plenty of acid but finding the fruit is like joining a group chat on mute—apparently it’s there, it looks like its there. I have visited several wineries recently where the whites were stunningly good but the reds were like sucking on a lemon. A bit more ripeness wouldn’t hurt.
Peter seems to agree: “It seems that we have moved to a narrative where “serious” wine culture is increasingly reserved for wines £50 and up. Everything else is consigned to some variant of glou-glou, lest anything deeper will scare away the fawns.”
I don’t know what the answer is but I do know that wine is a culture, not just an industry, and a culture needs ways of communicating about what is worthy and what is unworthy. (And no, influencers don’t count—its not about advertising.)
Perhaps the lack of young wine writers is a cause not a consequence.
But alas, it’s been widely reported we’re now in a post-literate society where younger people don’t read but spend their time speed-running Plato on 2x with auto-generated captions. I don’t have a solution to that either.
Exploring the Philosophy of Food and Wine 