Uiv-Vinitaly Observatory. Unexpected and unhoped-for assist from GenZ (born in 2000) and Millennials (28-44 years old). Younger people spend more than Boomers (+60 years old) and GenX (45-60 years old). In Italy and the U.S., the Under 44s stem the decline in consumption.
They raise their glasses from the table to make it a status symbol, they are willing to spend on super premium labels but without becoming attached to brands. They uncork in company and don’t want to give up cocktails. This is the picture of under-44 American and Italian wine consumers taken and illustrated today in Rome by the Uiv-Vinitaly Observatory at the press conference presenting the 57th Vinitaly, International Wine and Spirits Exhibition, scheduled at Veronafiere April 6-9.
Under the lens, the Italian and U.S. markets (together accounting for 60 percent of total Italian wine sales) and the younger segments of the population. In a general context of declining consumption that has seen the fourth consecutive year of contraction in Italy and third in the United States, wine must be able to intercept and understand these young people.
Uiv-Vinitaly Observatory analysis based on Iwsr debunks numerous clichés about the wine-youth relationship. Millennials (aged 28 to 44) and GenZ (from legal drinking age to 27) represent the promised land of a generational change that is as necessary as it is complicated. A territory still largely off the radar of Italian wine.
The study disproves much of a common imagery that sees the younger generation far removed from wine, disinterested and immune to its evocative power. None of this is the case: the under-44s are spending more and are in fact keeping afloat a premium market threatened by the retreat of Boomers (aged 61-79) and GenX (aged 45-60).
Wine status symbol? For young people, yes
The combination of wine and food remains important, but seems to be losing centrality for American and Italian young winelovers. While it is true that “wine enhances food” for the vast majority of those over44, those who identify with this statement among Millennials and GenZ fall below half. In contrast, in the Belpaese, the share of very young Italians who see wine as a fashion statement is exactly double (56 percent) that of boomers (28 percent). Millennials also pull away from GenX by 16 percentage points (45% vs. 29%). This is a relevant trend, for which Iwsr has coined a new category, Status Seekers, who, while representing only 11 percent of regular wine drinkers, realize 24 percent of the volume and 35 percent of the value generated by regular wine drinkers in the United States.
According to data compiled by the Uiv-Vinitaly Observatory, about 31 percent of the total value of wine purchases in America is attributable to Ultra Premium products, made in 6 out of 10 cases by consumers under44. The situation in Italy is different, where high-end wines are worth only 10 percent of purchases, but made here, too, for about half by young consumers. Both young Americans and Italians, when compared to the higher age groups, say they are less loyal to specific brands. The unfaithful are about one in two among the under-44s while they drop to a third above this age threshold.
Sociality continues to be a key element in the wine experience, particularly for young Americans who, in 7 out of 10 cases, have increased consumption precisely because of increased socialization.
Consumption, holding up among the under-44s, fleeing among the over-44s
Millennials and GenZ demonstrate an irrefutable (but also intergenerational) passion for cocktails, but they look at wine with an interest that debunks several clichés. First, it is not true that “wine does not appeal to young people.” In Italy, the profile of wine drinkers by age closely mirrors the age distribution of the population(legal drinking age), with the under-44s at 35 percent, while in the U.S. Millennials and GenZ-which represent only one-third of the population-reach 47 percent among wine drinkers, denoting a higher penetration rate of the drink among young people than among more mature consumers.
With respect to frequency of consumption and quantity, the belief that young people are more morose and prone to occasional consumption is also disproved. In both countries, the tendency (high, around 80 percent) to reduce consumption to 2-3 times a month appears rather equally distributed among the different age groups, and on the quantity front, both in the U.S. and – by a smaller margin of difference – in Italy, the share of those who habitually drink two or more glasses of wine is higher among the young than among the over44s.
It is the mature consumers who drink less
The belief that “consumption is going down because of young people” is then shown to be false. In America,” the Observatory notes, “it is precisely mature consumers who are pulling the handbrake. While among the under-44 youth more have increased consumption (31 percent) than those who have decreased it (26 percent), in the older age groups only 9 percent represent those who have increased wine consumption, and rise to 29 percent those who have decreased their consumption. In Italy, the decline seems more cross-sectional and intergenerational, involving more than a quarter of the population (27%) in both age clusters. Here, too, however, it is the under-44s (14% those who have increased consumption, compared to 7% in the over-44 group) who are partly calming the decline.
Sober curiosity–the temporary one prevails
In both places, almost half of the teetotalers belong to the Boomer generation, followed by GenX (23% in the U.S. and 30% in Italy). GenZ and Millennials together account for only 3 in 10 teetotalers in the U.S. and 2 in 10 in Italy. The sober curious trend is reversed in the case of the so-called “dry” periods, which in the U.S. see the under-44s in the front row, with a share willing to temporary parentheses of abstinence that among the youngest (GenZ) reaches 60% in the U.S. and 46% in Italy. Lower is the propensity of the over, with shares hovering around 30 percent in the U.S. and 25 percent in Italy.
