There has been plenty of chatter around the Gen Z generation – which includes legal-age drinkers born between 1997-2012 – and their drinking behaviours.  

In a 2023 Gallup survey, 62% of US adults aged 18 and 34 reported drinking alcohol between 2021-2023, a drop from 72% recorded in 2001-2003. Younger adults also said they were drinking less often and were less likely to overdrink.

A Gallup study the following year also found 65% of drinkers aged 18 to 34 thought consuming alcohol negatively impacted health, compared to 37% of 35- to 54-year-olds and 29% of those aged 55 and over.

In a research note last month, Rabobank’s senior beverages analyst Bourcard Nesin argued that, in the US at least, alcohol has become less intertwined with Gen Z’s “formative and most impressionable years”, making them more likely to have their first alcoholic drink at a later stage.

Other analysts are more sceptical about the idea Gen Z is drinking less. In March, Barclays analysts concluded arguments suggesting younger drinkers are moving away from alcohol were “misleading”.

Wine producers are working hard to attract Gen Z drinkers and recognise securing their interest is vital to future growth. As with any new generation though, time is needed to determine how to approach these consumers and whether their drinking habits pose a threat to the category in the long-term.

Different times

The most significant challenge Gen Z poses winemakers is, simply and unsurprisingly, they are a generation with different lived experiences.

They are the first generation to grow with the internet and access to social media and smartphones. A significant portion will have also experienced the global Covid pandemic in their early years of adulthood, a time in other generations’ lives shaped by social activities and drinking.

For Matthew Deller, CEO of Australian wine group Wirra Wirra, both these factors are just some of many influencing Gen Z’s approach to wine. What stands out about this generation, he notes, is they want to move away from the same drinking choices as their parents, or avoid adopting unhealthy drinking habits which they may have been exposed to.

“Part of it is a generation wanting to do differently to what their parents did,” he says. “Then, secondly, I think it’s a generation where, sadly, a lot of them have grown up in households where their parents haven’t had a healthy relationship with alcohol.”

Deller stresses it’s important not to view Gen Z are as “an amorphous group” but nonetheless says there a clutch of “key drivers” brands should focus on, including “authenticity and provenance”.

Breaking the mould

When it comes to driving Gen Z interest in wine, one obstacle the sector faces is the cohort, unlike older generations, is coming to the category relatively blind.

“They don’t know what they’re going to enjoy. They kind of stand there and they get overwhelmed, and so they walk away,” says Claire Raine, brands controller for Concha y Toro in the UK.

To try attract Gen Z drinkers, wine companies should look to develop eye-catching branding and packaging, she says.

“You’ve got a recognisable logo or brand asset that they can remember because it’s really difficult to remember what you’ve liked as well if they come back,” says Raine. “But you also have to reassure them that it’s a safe bet and that they’re not going to waste their money, and it’s not a cheap purchase.”

How can wine brands stand out on the shelf? It has a lot to do with keeping the brand’s appearance fresh.

Tom Khan-Lavin, co-founder of UK drinks marketing agency YesMore, says vintners should move away from traditional label designs. “Wine brands that use an illustration of a chateau and a gold foiled crest on their branding are not going to appeal to the same people that they used to appeal to,” he says.

One example of a brand breaking conventions in branding and packaging is US-based Whiny Baby. Unlike most producers in the industry, Jess Druey founded her Californian wine brand in 2020 as a Gen Z consumer herself.

Consequently, she had that consumer base as a key target in mind. “The wine industry is going through quite a bit of a hard time right now and it’s mainly after how do we get this next generation to care about wine?”, she says. “I think starting first with meeting them where they’re at is something I’ve always done just because I am the consumer myself.”

Whiny Baby produces three SKUs: the Obsessed red blend, Unwind white wine blend, and OMG!?! Fizzy rose.

The business’s goal is to “bridge that divide” between small-batch producers and mass-produced brands found on retail shelves, says Druey. Closing that gap is important to attracting Gen Z too, she adds, as they are attracted to “the authenticity” of small-batch brands, and “drawn towards the transparency in the production of it”.

As well as offering drinkers an entry-level wine range, Whiny Baby also look to provide them the chance to interact with the product, through the “conversation starter” bottle caps, or saveable peel and stick labels which can be filled out to commemorate a specific occasion.

“We’ve leaned into the experience that wine naturally creates. You know, Gen Z is the loneliest generation so far… and they’re craving connection,” Druey explains.

In 2022, data from US health company Cigna found 79% of US adults from 18 to 24–years-old reported feeling lonely compared to 41% of seniors aged 66 and over. A 2024 study from UK-based market research group GWI also showed similar results on a global level, with 80% of 1,821 Gen Z participants worldwide agreeing they had felt lonely in the past year.

“So out of everything, that is my biggest mission and what drives me every day. Yes, I love wine, but most importantly, I really want to create products that connect our generation,” adds Druey.

Tweaking tone

As producers look to update their branding, winemakers should also look to use different tones of voice.

“If you look to all the descriptions of all the traditional wine brands out there, they just merge into becoming the same kind of tone of voice and it can come across as almost elitist, the way that wine is described,” explains Khan-Lavin at YesMore. “Gen Z audiences are non-exclusive, they’re inclusive, and so the brands need to be inclusive of them in the way that they weave and understand and interpret what the brand is saying.”

Getting the right tone of voice is something Italian vintner Pasqua Wines has been working on. The group, which produces brands including 11 Minutes and Hey French, has aimed to be “less self-celebrating” and “a little less technical”, while also managing to share “the values of the wine or the producer that makes the wine”, explains CEO Riccardo Pasqua.

One way the Veneto-based business has been looking to adapt its tone is with a more “cool communication approach”, he says, which looks to evoke more a specific lifestyle than anything about the wine world.

Over the past decade, Pasqua Wines has been pushing wine’s connection with the art world, supporting over 30 global contemporary artists, most recently sponsoring an ongoing exhibition at London’s Saatchi Gallery.

“The dream is to have this generation saying or thinking I want to be part of that,” says Pasqua. “I want to have that wine because I feel like I’m travelling to that place, I feel I’ve been to one of those parties”.

Finessing flavour

In terms of which wines Gen Z enjoy drinking, producers are still working out what sticks.

A GlobalData 2024 consumer survey found that 43% Gen Z respondents reported “sweet” as being the most appealing flavour type in wine, Champagne and sparkling wine categories. That was followed by 28% picking “fruity”, 18% choosing “bitter” and 15% respectively picking “sour/tart/tangy” and “novel/unusual”.

In 2023, Concha y Toro launched a flavoured wine brand into UK retail called Joy, which targets younger drinkers with a range of three wines and an orange Spritz. The brand is also sold in Japan.

The drink can be used for wine-based spritzes but has “no rules”, says Raine. “You can have it as a cocktail, you can have it over ice, because one thing we do know is that cold drinks appeal a lot more to Gen Z than your red wines… so [Joy] was built with that in mind”.

However, Joy isn’t necessarily easy to position on-shelf. “This is the other challenge. It’s difficult to know where to put those fruit flavoured wines for us and for the retailers, because generally, some retailers will give them a section on their own,” Raine adds. “But, again, you have to look for it and you have to discover it. It varies by retailer as to where you’ll find it.”

For now, it’s still too early to determine if any specific flavours are dominating Gen Z’s taste preferences in wine, she argues, suggesting it’s “yet to be proven, whether things like your flavoured and your fruit wines really do resonate. Theoretically they should.”

As Khan-Lavin at YesMore notes, while younger consumers tend to prefer sweeter food and drink, this could also be hit by the fact that these generations “may also have the ambition to reduce or limit their sugar intake for the sake of health and wellbeing, both for physical, visual appearance as well as mental wellness”.

GlobalData’s consumer survey also found “cross-industry collaborations” to be particularly attractive to Gen Z drinkers, with co-branded drinks having become more common recently in spirits. Whether the wine industry will head down this path isn’t yet clear.

“It would be interesting to understand whether there’s other categories that they’re buying into that we can tap into in terms of spirits,” Raine says. “Do we end up looking at, for example, category blur between spirits and wine? I don’t know, I don’t have the answers yet.”

New formats

Another way Concha y Toro is looking to attract younger drinkers in the UK is new packaging formats like cans, which can “massively over-index with the younger audience”, says Raine. The group’s Casillero del Diablo brand is launching canned ready-to-drink wines in August through UK retailer Tesco.

“They’re great for trial. They’re also great for the occasions when Gen Z are looking to drink at festivals, on-the-go outdoors, with those really sociable settings,” she says. “For us, that’s one way of trying to get them to interact with the brand in a format that might be more relevant to them than, say, necessarily, a full, expensive, 75cl bottle of wine.”

Others, however, proceed with caution. Deller at Wirra Wirra warns the market for alternative formats like cans is still relatively small.

“Whenever we’re talking low-and-no and cans and this sort of stuff, we have to remind ourselves of the base that we’re working on. They look all shiny and exciting because there’s so much growth but [in terms of] the base that we’re working off they are such tiny niches in the total wine category.”

Market opportunities

Some have pointed to Asia as a key region where Gen Z drinkers are likely to lean towards wine.

Deller says China has been an “emerging” market for wine for some time, being consumed mostly in “corporate gifting, corporate entertaining” scenarios.

In China, Gen Z’s parents drink baijiu, so they’re rebelling against their parents by drinking wine

Matthew Deller, Wirra Wirra

While these drinking occasions have declined and hit overall consumption in the country, Deller believes there are opportunities. “While Gen Z in Western countries are rebelling against their parents by not drinking wine, in China, their parents drink baijiu, so they’re rebelling against their parents by drinking wine.”

“They’re really into flavour. They’re really into exploration. All of those values are really playing out [here], the provenance and authenticity and craft. China is sort of a booming Gen Z market, and in some of the other Asian markets, like Korea.”

Besides China, Deller also says there’s “a similar dynamic in Brazil” and anticipates the same will also develop “in some of the more affluent in African markets.”

Pasqua Wines also sees a growing opportunity for Gen Z consumption in China, where the business bought out its importer in 2018. The group’s CEO says these drinkers are “probably eager to spend to enjoy a nice experience”.

“I’ve been traveling to China very often with our people there, and what I notice is that they are trying to find more time for themselves. They’re trying to imitate, if you may, the Western lifestyle, where it’s not only, work, work and achievement, but it’s also taking the time to enjoy yourself… I think that could be really a big breakthrough for the Italian wine business, and therefore for Pasqua”.

Is Gen Z a threat to wine consumption?

Producers overall seem positive the generation can be brought into the wine category, that it’s just a matter of time and marketeers need not be afraid to approach things a little differently.

While Wirra Wirra’s Deller says it’s still “too early to tell” whether Gen Z poses a threat to the long-term growth of the wine country, YesMore’s Khan-Lavin believes the consumption habits and demands of both Gen Z, and eventually Gen Alpha, will put at risk winemakers “that are reluctant to change”.

As well as influencing changes to packaging, branding and flavour, Deller does believe the sector will also witness some “attrition and consolidation” as it works out how best to continue attracting younger generations into wine.

“If… out of all of this wine has a bit of shake-up and all that’s left [is] the really interesting, or the really distinctive wines, the really delicious wines and we’re meeting Gen Z where they are, making wine more informal and less stuffy, I think it’s a good thing.”