10 sommeliers share insights on how wineries and wine pros can encourage a love for wine among Millennial and Gen Z consumers
— Read on www.winespectator.com/articles/genz-millenials-wine-industry
As usual the old guard is terrified that soon they will be irrelevant and this time it’s the wine industry. Similar to other blame games pointed at Millennials and Gen Z many of this articles remedies revolve around theses generations not getting it or having decision paralysis. It is as if self reflection is not a thing when it comes to analyzing the needs and values of the younger generations. Boomers have inflated the cost of wine way beyond the cost of production and yet wineries are puzzled why a a generation of young people who at can barely afford housing much less buy wine. Thinking back to when I first started drinking wine the cost of entry was minimal. From Pic Poul Pinet for under four dollars a bottle to Bonny Doon’s Big House Red for less than eight bucks, I could literally mix a case of great wine for under a hundred bucks from real wineries and in a pinch there was the silo wines like Two Buck Chuck, which actually cost two bucks. I argue in many cases the quality of wine hasn’t kept up with the cost of inflation and while the marketing has increased exponentially the stories of individual pioneers following their dream to make great wines from the resources they could put together is few and far between. The monopolies have created lack luster faceless wines of dubious origins. Faces you do see within the industry don’t reflect a diverse society. Attempts to improve the diversity of the demographics of wine producers has improved but when you look at the well paying jobs outside of production and service not much has changed.