Millennials love wine. So do women. These are known facts. That’s part of why this hilarious Inside Amy Schumer .gif hits so close to home for so many of us (also, because we loved FNL). But just in case everyone wasn’t sure, there’s now some hard data.
At the Wine Market Council’s 2016 Consumer Research Conference in New York, Wine Market Council president John Gillespie presented the numbers from the Council’s most recent study of high-frequency drinkers. The findings: high-frequency wine drinkers are on the rise. Back in 2000, the segment of adults of legal drinking age who were considered high-frequency wine drinkers (“several times per week or daily”) was 7.6%. Now, it’s nearly double that, at 13%. And the research found that millennials alone were largely responsible for the surge between 2005 and 2010. (They play pretty loose with “millennials,” lumping 21 to 38-year-olds into that designation.)
The number of occasional wine drinkers—those who drink wine less than one time per week—is also up, from 18% to 26%.
Of course, it’s not all roses for the industry. They’re having a hard time convincing “non-adopters”—those who drink beer or liquor, but not wine—to come over to the Fruity Side. Between 2010 and 2015, there was very little movement from the non-adopter segment into wine.
That said, Millennials do like to drink: up to 40% more millennials drink alcohol than the overall population; 4% of those Millennials drink only wine.
As for women’s consumption habits, Jennifer Pagano, Director of Research for the Wine Market Council, and Danelle Kosmal, Vice President of Nielsen’s Beverage Alcohol Practice Area, jointly presented recent Nielsen and Wine Market Council data on the topic.
Survey says: Yep, women officially like wine. They account for 57% of the wine consumption in the U.S.; 66% of those wine purchases are planned. Which means that a whopping 44% are unplanned, I’m-feeling-like-wine-tonight purchases!
As for labels, they go a long way toward helping those unplanned purchases. One survey found that “traditional, classic, and sophisticated” labels were more intriguing to women than other types of label, while 26% have purchased wine specifically marketed to women.
And to loop right back around to millennials, “highly involved female wine drinkers are mostly millennials…are more often urban educated professionals, and more ethnically diverse than the typical female wine drinker.
Want more researchy stuff? You’ll have to wait until March 10, when Texas Tech University PhD candidate Nicholas Johnston will present additional research on women and wine at the Wine Market Council’s California conference. He’ll also be speaking about millennials and wine labeling. Until then, go ahead and pour yourself a jumbo-sized glass of wine — who are you to go against statistics?
