31 Jul 2025 Wine’s ongoing generational panic
The latest generation, it seems, is always to blame for a fall-off in wine sales – really?
In 1998, The New York Times said, “Young people, the 21- to 29-year-olds, are turning away from wine… For the $13-billion-a-year wine industry, the loss of so many potential consumers couldn’t come at a worse time.”
In 2016, The New York Post ran a headline, “Millennials are ruining the American wine industry.”
Fast-forward to the current generational panic in the wine industry — this time, regarding the 13- to 29-year-olds that make up Generation Z.
The wine industry is currently facing a mountain of struggles, including shifting consumer preferences, oversupply in many regions, rising costs and tariffs along with a growing — and loud — anti-alcohol movement. Meanwhile, older generations, Baby Boomers specifically, are pulling back from their previous levels of wine consumption.
So, why are the kids, many of whom are still below drinking age, getting so much blame yet again?
The great generational divide
“Drinking is down across not just Gen Z, but all demographics,” says Wine Enthusiast contributor Kate Dingwall on this episode of the Wine Enthusiast Podcast. Yet “almost wrongfully, Gen Z has been given this title of failing to launch into wine”.
Though Gen Z drinkers make up a mere 3.6% of the country’s {US] alcohol spend — a pretty large gap compared to Gen X’s 27.5% and Millennials’ and baby boomers’ 25.5% — the ones who are of legal drinking age are still spending the same share of their income on alcohol as Millennials. They just don’t have the same level of income — yet.
These are people in their early- to mid-twenties. “I’m an elder Gen Zer,” says Jess Druey, the 27-year-old founder of Whiny Baby, a playful California-based brand that celebrates the stereotypes of her generation. “My friends are just now dipping their toes into wine.”
This late 20’s foray into wine makes sense if you think back to what alcoholic beverages most folks have traditionally consumed when they were that age. “I worked in wine from, like, 25 on, and I didn’t even actually start buying a lot of wine till I was like 30,” Dingwall adds.
But Druey claims it’s not just age and finances that are getting in the way of Gen Zers embracing wine. With all this handwringing, the industry hasn’t exactly been inviting.
“When you go to purchase wine at a store, how is it formatted? How is it laid out? Is it a way that an everyday person can understand?,” she asks. “When I first started my wine drinking journey, I had no clue the difference between varietals. That alone is a difficult barrier to entry.”
This is why Dingwall and Druey — who have both dug into what’s actually happening — say it’s about meeting Gen Z where they’re at.
“I’m of the belief that it’s the wine industry’s responsibility to own the occasions where they’re introduced to wine, not just own the product…,” says Druey.
“There’s a rise in hobbies. There’s a rise in homemaking. There’s a rise in dinner parties. Wine is made for all three of those things. So, I get excited about the opportunity ahead.”
Listen in for more…..
