In an earlier post, I noted French Millennials are forgoing wine, Mon Dieu! Nielsen is reporting U.S. Millennials are forgoing beer in favor of wine. Shocking but true, beer drinking among 21- to 30-year-olds dropped 12 percentage points in the last 10 years. For comparison, beer consumption for those over the age of 30 dropped just 6 percentage points.
According to Nielsen, most of the “slack” is being picked up with, you guessed it, wine! (Before we get too carried away with this insight, Nielsen also points out that beer still accounts for 83 percent of Gen Y alcoholic beverage purchases.) Research by Gallup and another study by the industry group, Wine Market Council, confirm the trend. The Boston Globe speculates that “Millennials have the potential to become the next generation to embrace wine in numbers not seen since the baby boomers.”
What does this trend tell us about the tastes of U.S. Millennials? A lot, according to qualitative research by Liz Thach at Sonoma State University. First, the research revealed that only 18 percent of Millennial wine drinkers see wine as “hip or cool.” Most in fact think it is too ‘elite’ to be hip or cool and wish that marketers would portray wine drinking as more ‘fun’. Instead, the Millennials who drink wine regularly drink it because they like the taste and think it goes well with food. Furthermore, (big hint here), half said that they were introduced to wine through a family member. This suggests Millennials tastes are influenced by their Boomer parents. The Boston Globe put it this way:
Thach’s (focus group) respondents seemed to have sophisticated culinary interests. She says they watch cooking and decorating shows, throw dinner parties, and eat interesting, diverse foods. ”They like wine with food,” she says. ”This is where I see a trend happening in this country, which also happened in Australia several years ago — what they call the cafe society. We are starting to be more interested in the good things in life: good wine, good food, friends, taking time out to relax and enjoy things. This is actually one of the values we identified of this generation…The generation who grew up with free-range chickens, organic vegetables, and working moms who stopped for take-out on the way home were exposed to all kinds of food from an early age. Add to that the array of imported foods and beverages available to them — this demographic moves from Swiss chocolates to Hershey’s bars with ease — and you have one possible explanation as to why the diversity of flavors in wine are appealing to this group.
This insight confirms my earlier assertion that Millennials, with their above average earnings and sophisticated tastes, are an untapped market for what many consider “luxury” goods. You just can’t call them luxuries.
