The decline in wine consumption? If it’s mostly the more mature generations that are holding back

Wine has accompanied man for millennia. And throughout history it has seen so much change. Including the generational approach to its consumption. And if the “nectar of Bacchus” has always been considered the ideal drink for more mature people, it does not seem so true that today's young people do not care at all, that they consider it an “old man’s drink”, and that they spend little, on wine, because they have little money in their pockets. With the decline in consumption that, on closer analysis, is not to be attributed to the youngest, or not only, in short, to Generation Z, the very young, or the Millennials, who are already a bit more mature, but also to a slowdown on the part of the generations that have grown it in recent times, wine consumption, starting with the Boomers. On the contrary, according to the Uiv-Vinitaly Wine Observatory on Iwsr data on consumption habits in Italy and the United States (strategic markets for Italian wine, accounting for more than 60% of the national industry’s turnover), presented, today in Rome, at the launch of Vinitaly 2025 (April 6-9, at Veronafiere) the differences between under and over 44 are very subtle, even sometimes the young are (surprisingly) ahead of the mature: open-minded, smart, hardly any obvious clues of their passage can be found. They do, however, leave their mark.
First of all, the myth that wine is less appealing to young consumers must be dispelled: a commonplace, considering that in the U.S. compared to 1/3 of young people out of the total population over 21 (legal drinking age in the States, ed.), wine consumers under 44 weigh in at 47% of the total. In Italy, there is perfect adherence between population and wine consumers (35% young, 65% mature), a signal that wine under 44 is a drink perfectly in line with the evolution of generations. In our country, the penetration index of still wines is at 54% among younger people (versus 59% among mature people), in the United States the ratio is 56-58%.
And if the sign on consumption globally, from Italy to the U.S., from the U.K. to Germany, via Japan and China, is evidently negative, responsibility lies at least equally among generations. Indeed, on some types of wine - such as reds, those that suffer most from the consumption crisis - it is the more mature generations that have given up the fight. Because reds, certain types of reds (low added value for example), are the ones that have branded the Boomer generation, and it is the Boomers who have “betrayed”, according to the Uiv-Vinitaly observatory: in Italy and the U.S. those who have decreased consumption are 30% over 44, while those who claim to have increased it are predominantly young: 31% in the U.S. (versus 9% of the mature), 14% in Italy (versus 7% of the mature). It is often heard that younger people lack frequency and intensity: even this, data in hand, turns out to be untrue. Meanwhile, sporadic consumption (less than 2-3 times a month) is perfectly divided between young and mature in the U.S. (75% and 79% out of a general average of 78%), while in our country young people are at 90%, compared to 81% of older people, out of a general average set at 80%. In terms of intensity (i.e., quantities consumed), young Americans who go over two drinks are 80%, compared to 72% of those over 44. In Italy, too, the prevalence-though less overwhelming-is for the under-44s, at 70%t versus 68% for the mature. If the frequency is more or less the same and the quantities are even greater for the young, this provides further clue to the fact that-as older people are prevalent in the consumer base, at least in Italy-the figure of declining consumption is attributable precisely to the latter. Who then, compared to the younger ones, are also the ones who spend less on average: in Italy, the highest value-added wines (ultra premium bands and above) account for just 10% of total value consumption, but half of the audience of those who buy them are under 44. In the U.S., out of an ultra premium consumption figure of 31% by value, young people weigh as much as 60%.
Blame the cost of living plus more? Not really. According to Uiv-Vinitaly, those who say they have spent more because of galloping inflation are older people, while 2/3 of young Americans and 41% of Italians say they have voluntarily upgraded to more expensive wines (versus 48% American and 28% Italian, respectively). Another hallmark of the younger generation is infidelity: they experiment much more, changing wines and brands all the time, both in the U.S. (half of the young versus 33% of the mature) and in Italy (47% versus 35%). Often and willingly for the sake of change, because wine is fashionable (56% of Italian Gen Zs, the first factor in choosing wine, versus 28% of Boomers), but also because wine enhances food: a prerogative not only of mature consumers (above 60% response rate in the U.S. and Italy), but also of younger consumers, with positive response rates above 40%. So, in spite of what we thought we knew, young people are great wine lovers: they use sparkling wine for cocktails, sure (although in Italy the share is at 14%, just above the mature, compared to 28% of the under-44 Americans), when they go out with friends, they drink wine often and willingly (70% of young Americans say they have proportionally increased socializing occasions and still wine consumption).
And lifestyle (healthiness, diets, various beliefs) is not an obstacle to consumption, at least no more than it is for the mature: in fact, in Italy these considerations affect the consumption of 1/4 of young people and 1/5 of the over-44s, while in the U.S. they affect 31% of young people and 30% of the over-44s. Speaking of lifestyle, it is true that “dry periods” - longer or shorter periods of abstinence from drinking - are more a prerogative of young people than of the mature, but in this case the differences between Italy and the United States are marked: Millennials at home, for example, show intentions toward “time-based” abstinence in line with the older generations (above 25%), while in the U.S. we are at half the sample, compared with “dry” intentions on the older generation of 23%. For Gen Z, Italians also have a higher abstinence index than older generations, but 14 points lower than their U.S. peers (46% vs. 60%).
Other evidence, which emerges from reading the data on young people, is the fatigue of wine consumption at the level of mature generations, especially in Italy. Frequencies that tend to become rarer, as for young people, but accompanied by smaller quantities consumed, greater tendency to reduce (61% of the cluster), dictated not only by health reasons or linked in general to alcohol, but also by cost (1/4 of the over-44s in our country), and higher incidence of total teetotalers: if alcohol consumers are 2/3 mature, the incidence of these on the total non-drinkers rises to 78%.
In conclusion, the research explains, the wine industry, and the Italian industry in particular, has so far struggled to take the measure of the younger generations, for reasons related to the difficulty of making consistent the heterogeneous elements that drive them to approach alcohol in general and wine in particular. On the other hand, however, even in the absence of a certain framework, some work has undoubtedly been done, as the younger generations are proving to be a proactive part of consumption, partly offsetting the volume (but especially value) erosions of some types of wine, which would otherwise be catastrophic. Millennials and especially Gen Z are consumers who have more than a decade ahead of them, and already pawing the brand new Alpha generation. The signals (weak, but up to a point) being sent to the industry are many, only unlike their parents and grandparents, they go in a variety of directions, sometimes resulting in contradictions.
This heritage, evidenced by the numbers in this report, is an important starting point for first of all clearing the field of clichés, but above all for forging a lasting and profitable relationship with the “adults of tomorrow”. “For sure, in the years to come, the wine sector will undergo reductions (and consequent restructuring) of production, which implies constant redirection work, at the level of production, style, and communication. These will be challenging years, for sure, that will put a strain on companies, which are called to make the leap that in past years concerned merely the quality of wine, but now must necessarily include a more holistic sphere of doing business,” concludes the Uiv-Vinitaly Wine Observatory.