Let’s face it, the youth these days just aren’t the same (to use a boomer cliche), and that’s a good thing. But it does pose a challenge for businesses and wine professionals who are facing an aging customer base, whose "discerning palates" and stiff upper lips have dominated the wine industry for longer than it takes to age a Monestrell to its peak drinking window.
The trouble is that this older generation of “fine wine connoisseurs” won’t last forever, not to mention, the disparity in spending power between older and younger generations is seeing younger consumers prioritising the spend of their disposable income on things other than booze. Traditional wine marketing in the form of vintage reports, high brow critique, and the quiet but ever present notion of elitism around wine drinkers will have to die off with its client base if the wine industry would like to keep, let alone grow their share of the consumer pool.
The sober-curious generation
For me, (a millennial, flirting with the Gen X lifestyle) drinking and smoking cigarettes were my right of passage into adulthood. Holding my liquor was not only good for my social image, but also made me feel a lot more grown up than some of my peers who spent the last few hours of a night-out hurling their over-indulgences into their own laps. Drinking to excess and pummeling two packets of cigarettes a night was not only a social norm when I was teenager, but it was expected behaviour in all of my social gatherings. The Gen Zs see this differently. Making up almost one third of the global population and a similar percentage of the work force, the young adults of today are spending their time and money on different things.
Drinking to excess has become so 2010, and wine especially is regarded as expensive, inaccessible, and if consumed at all, something reserved for special occasions. A movement rising from the ashes of burnt out boomer livers is the Sober-Curious movement. According to Peter M. Vernig, PhD, vice president of mental health services at Recovery Centers of America, "The Sober Curious movement is a growing group of individuals who opt to drink less or not at all as a lifestyle choice."
Yes, you read that right, young people are getting curious about sobriety. The last time I was curious about sobriety was in first year university after a two week bender, but each to their own.
The trade off is that the Gen Zs are prioritizing activities and experiences over getting drunk, and I understand this. I’m probably not imaginative enough to find activities like casual pottery and slurping hot ramen on a live stream while dressed as a Pokemon character particularly exciting, but I have felt an intentional move away from drunkenness while drinking in favour of savouring a good glass of wine, so more power to them.
This trend does seem to be specific to alcohol consumption, and with the fairly recent decriminalisation of marijuana in South Africa, we’re seeing more and more young people consuming wacky-tobaccy in place of drinking.
This brings me to my next point:
Self-medicating
I’ve always seen having a drink as a form of self-medicating, and I’m sure that a lot of my peers do too. There is nothing like cracking a cold beer after work, or winding down into the evening with a delicious glass of wine to make you feel like the day’s efforts were not in vain. Evaluating whether that is a good or bad thing (probably bad) should be left in the capable hands of someone who prefixes their name with Dr. My therapist in particular. But self-medicating amongst a demographic that doesn’t drink takes on a different form. Where a cool, crisp glass of Chenin Blanc is what "keeps me sane" at the end of the day, more and more young people are experimenting with marijuana, prescription meds, and psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Sure, I partake in a little inhalable levity here and there, and with such a vast amount of available information on it now, understanding how to use it, and weighing its benefits against its shortcomings has become easier than ever. The trend of “responsible” / "therapeutic" cannabis consumption among the younger generations, including Millennials, is an increasingly interesting topic (but that’s probably an op-ed for another day).
None the less, I would not trade my Riedel for a peace pipe. Drinking wine, for me, is an experience not centred in inebriation, whilst marijuana and psychedelics generally are. Maybe it is this perspective that we need to pass on to young-adult drinkers: To not think of wine as something you drink to lean on, but something to experience for its complexity of flavour instead of it simply being slurry-blurry juice (without calling them the great-unwashed for not having realised this already).
The main problem with shifting the curiosity of young consumers from appropriating rastafarianism to becoming oenophiles, is that unfortunately, their perception that wine is expensive and unapproachable is completely justified. Unless we start uncovering vintage bottles of Lafite-Rothschild under piles of old jackets (see Ackermans circa 1999) in thrift stores, the market for fine wine will always be reserved for an older, richer, and generally (wine) nerdy demographic.
Unfortunately, that is not enough to sustain this industry, especially given the generational trends mentioned above.
Knowing the difference between cool wine regions and the 'coolest' wine regions
Marketing anything to anyone requires a knowledge of their context, what kind of media they consume, and most crucially, how they think about the product. Converting young consumers into wine drinkers by talking about terroir, clones and uninoculated yeast would be a waste of time. Not because they don’t have the capacity for that level of navel-high-shorts nerdery, but because unless you’re actually nerdy about wine, these things are as interesting as Joe Biden giving a sermon on sleeping.
Looking at the undeniable surge of Asian culture on social media (see my reference to my Pokemon costume) that is being consumed en masse by young adults, as well as the fact that a lot of new restaurants popping up around Johannesburg are Asian centric cuisine, its seems obvious to look to what the Asian wine market is consuming.
Speaking to numerous winemakers has taught me that the Asian markets, specifically Korea and Japan, are seeing a massive uplift in consumption of natural, skin contact and Methode Ancestrale wines. This stands to reason as I find that the flavour compounds of these wines pair well with the local food. Label design plays a big factor here too, where traditional labels featuring colonial farm houses and vineyards which spark ancestral memories of the dop system for me, are losing favour to the more cartoonish, lighthearted and art centric labels that are being plastered on bottles of Pet-Nat (for instance).
While these wines are snubbed by older traditional wine drinkers, and labelled as undrinkable, I personally find these wines exciting, unique and a fresh-fun take on a drink that historically has carried Chateau-s of pomp and snobbery with it. South Africa has a vast array of these kinds of wines that are often overlooked. So much so that a lot of these wines are being exported to the likes of Asia as well as Nordic countries.
When talking about cool wine regions, there are several correct answers. Yes, Elgin and Elim would be considered some of the coolest wine regions in South Africa, but the personalities, experimentation, and vibe of the Swartland region definitely has potential for this region (ironically, because it’s quite hot) to be the coolest. Producers like Intellego, Mother Rock, Testalonga, and even Rall, are all producing beautiful wines in the sphere of natural, skin contact and Methode Ancestrale. It’s not like we have to reinvent the wheel to market to young consumers, and the product exists already.
I hope that by understanding the desires, interests and trend trajectory of future wine aficionados, we can give this industry a fighting chance by highlighting wines beyond the likes of Grand Cru Bordeaux and Hemel en Aarde Chardonnay. Splash a little skin-contact Grenache Gris from FRAM around a wine-centred music festival, and who knows, we may just tap into a market that celebrates and drinks wine differently, but ultimately, might secure a bright future for the wine industry.
Follow Razeen's wine journey on Instagram at @virgin_vines.