Are young people really losing interest in wine?
―A.M., Adelaide, SA
Yes. The drift away from alcoholic drinks, including wine, by young people is a global trend that worries winemakers everywhere. The French, once considered the biggest imbibers of wine, have slashed their consumption steadily over the past 30 to 40 years, and their wine sector is in dire straits.
Well-established wineries are challenged: they’re committed to growing certain grapes and producing certain styles of wine (read: traditional) and they understandably find it difficult to pivot and try new styles.
Australians have been quick to gear up and supply the growing market for no- and low-alcohol “wines”, but this alone won’t soak up the surplus of grapes we now have.
There have been grape juices, wine cocktails, distillation of wine into brandy, shiraz muffins, grape “health” baths (I kid you not) and gin blended with shiraz juice (Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz Gin).
But it’s wine we love, so why are we – and by we, I mean Gen Z and Millennials – moving away from drinking it? Perhaps because there are many more options for drinkers today than ever before?
They say that every wine-lover comes to wine in their own time, usually as they grow up and their tastes and behaviours mature. It’s normal for kids to reject the things their parents were into, whether it’s fashion or music or food, then, later on, discover that those things really aren’t so bad after all.
We have to remember that all tastes are cyclical. Baby Boomers may assume wine has always been around, but that’s not true; Australians have only really been wine drinkers since the “wine boom” of the late 1960s.
It’s normal for kids to reject the things their parents were into.
The repeated health warnings are probably the biggest factor behind the decline. Political leaders make it known that they don’t drink, and health authorities from Canada to Ireland have issued dire warnings, including the stricture that there’s really no safe level of alcohol intake.
In my opinion, becoming more health conscious is good, as long as we stop short of puritanism. Fun Police, butt out.
Got a drinks question for Huon Hooke? thefullbottle@goodweekend.com.au
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