Wine and trends: “natural”, macerated and “heroic” conquer the Millennials and women

Fads, in every sector, can be temporary or become consolidated trends. However, in any case, they are phenomena that market players must take into account, even in wine. Among the many, it emerges that young consumers, the so-called “Millennials”, and in particular women, are attracted by the wines defined as “natural”, by those produced in amphorae and by those born from heroic viticulture. It emerges from research by Tannico, leader of the Italian wine e-commerce, which has collected data from over 100,000 consumers, between 2015 and 2018. This shows, for example, how the market share for these types of wines has almost doubled, going from 8% to 15% of the total sales of Tannico, showing a growing and increasingly aware attention of the consumer to methods and products increasingly sought after.
Within the group of “Brave Wines”, to which Tannico has dedicated a section of his offer, stand out vegan wines (65%), followed by natural and “heroic” wines (both equal to 14.3% each) and finally the macerated wines that still represent a niche chosen by less than 2.5% of consumers analyzed. As far as the geographical origin of the wines purchased is concerned, 66% of the biodynamic wines sold and 60% of the wines derived from heroic viticulture come from Italy.
On the vegan front, Tannico customers choose foreign labels: 67% of vegan wines purchased come from abroad, while the origin of natural wines (50.4% from Italy and 49.6% from abroad) and macerated wines (45%-55%) are substantially equal. From Tannico’s data, again, it emerges that women are more “brave” and willing to experiment than men, with purchasing choices that quantitatively exceed those of men for natural and “heroic wines” (+12% compared to the opposite sex), biodynamic (+7.1%) and vegan (+7.5%).
The Millennials, on the other hand, tend to be attentive to the latest trends and conscious consumption, and do not follow the vegan trend so much (-20% of purchases compared to other consumers), while they love macerated (+35%) and natural (+17%) wines. And the curiosity is that the greatest growth in the consumption of these wines guides those who have a low income (below 12,000 euros per year) and those who have a very high (above 42,000 euros): in the first case, purchases have grown by 3.2%, in the second by 6.3% compared to 4 years ago.
Among the “brave wines” analyzed by the research, stresses Tannico, there are the biodynamic wines, “certified by private bodies and produced by wineries completely independent in terms of energy, in harmony with the environment and the phases of the moon; natural wines, which are“ all those wines that are linked to a spontaneous process of evolution without the use of fertilizers, herbicides, and with a very low or zero sulphite content”, vegan wines, obtained without the use of ingredients, additives or adjuvants of animal origin, macerated wines and wines cultivated according to heroic viticulture, the result of a real visionary work in remote places or where climate, slope, and altitude make it even more difficult to achieve the final goal. And, for Zodiac enthusiasts, Tannico has classified consumers of “brave wines” also by sign. “Aries remains convinced of its choices in terms of wine as well and is the sign that it follows the “brave” trend (+10.24%), followed by Leo (+9.52%), another proudly decisive sign, and Pisces (+5.5%), balanced, altruistic and environmentally conscious. Aquarius, despite its non-conformist vein, is the sign with the lowest consumption of this type of wine (-10.5%), and together with Cancer (-5.2%) and Scorpio (-4.69%) is among the most resistant to purchase”.