Lulie Halstead writes at Wine Intelligence that “when it comes to the wine knowledge levels of premium wine consumers, I’m sure that the majority, if not all of us, would assume that higher spending wine drinkers are more knowledgeable about wine than those who spend at lower price points. After all, premium wine drinkers spend more on wine, so surely, they would know more about wine too?”
Our question is: Why would anyone think that. People who are willing to spend a great deal almost always do it as a matter of status: “I can afford to spend $250 on a bottle of champage.” Most of the rest of us simply assume that a more expensive product is better, even though we know that’s not true in many areas of life.
Halstead goes on to report that “premium wine drinkers are more likely to be younger consumers, typically Millennials, aged 35 and under. We know from these drinkers that their wine buying is less planned in advance and that typically they expect higher priced bottles to be of higher quality. And appearance matters amongst these drinkers. Wine is typically thought of as ‘more special’ and is reserved for more treat worthy occasions. So, based on that, wine needs to look and feel’ good’ i.e. premium to fulfil its role for these younger drinkers. Hence spending more.”
What matters, she says, is how long a consumer has been drinking wine. “If you’ve been drinking wine for 10, 20 or even 30 years, you build up a depth of knowledge because you’ve simply spent more time buying wine on more occasions and had more experience with it.”
And, she writes, older wine drinkers feel less compelled to “impress with wine.”