And that could be the biggest threat to the wine industry in the next decade, opines Lulie Halstad, of Wine Intelligence.
She notes that for a quarter century, wine has seen “an epic” growth of volume and value in the U.S. So, it seems to us, it shouldn’t be a surprise to learn her 20-something kids prefer gin, “particularly if someone else is buying.”
Wine Intelligence says the same percentage of people who said they drink alcohol this year as last. But, the number who say they drink wine at least once a month has fallen about 10% in a year.
Why? One reason, of course, is they are drinking less wine on the same number of occasions. But others are switching to other alcoholic or non-alcohol beverages. Frequent wine drinkers (those who drink wine at least once a week) has fallen to 73% this year from 79% in 2015, and 12% of U.S. wine drinkers say they are drinking less wine because they have switched to other alcoholic beverages.
Some 55% of regular U.S. wine drinkers are now drinking either beer or hard seltzer, Wine Intelligence says, while 46% are drinking vodka and 45% are drinking wine.