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These days, many young people entering
the world of commerce feel wine savvy is as crucial
a tool as financial analyses, supply chain management
of macroeconomics. It's their key to social networking,
they believe.
Yet the first 'Millennials' - the generation
born between 1982 and 2000—to reach legal drinking
age appear to have a very different perception of the
grape from their elders.
A Vinexpo-sponsored survey of one hundred
20 –25-year-olds in the U.K., France, Belgium,
Japan and 21 –25-year-old Americans, finds they
perceive wine culture as elitist, and are intimidated
by its vocabulary and myths.
They are fearful of choosing a bad vintage
and worry even more about mismatching wine and food.
Branding is important to this age group, yet their rebellious
nature resists traditional advertising and finds irreverent
labels most appealing.
Even the palate of this soft drink-raised
generation is different: they prefer varietals that
are light, fruity and refreshing.
The study also turns up some intriguing
differences between countries. Young Americans and Japanese
view wine culture as somewhat pompous. Only French and
Belgian youth perceive two different types of winemaking:
noble vintages from grand chateaux, and rustic bottles
from countryside farmers.
Young people everywhere think prices
are too high. This is good news: it means the newest
generation of wine drinkers is not settling for plonk,
but reaching for the quality wines.
While these twenty-plus youth also say
wine lacks a youthful image, they do feel maturity is
an asset. For post adolescents, the wine world is a
"marker of adulthood" the Vinexpo study tells
us, a place to create a new identity that is "refined,
educated and cultivated."
With full enrolment at university wine
courses and the ardent questions from young people at
tastings, Millennials seem determined to become sophisticated
oenophiles by the time they turn thirty.
In a few years we'll have a youthful new
crew of tasters. We shall also have a lot more competition
for those limited quantity California cults like Harlan
Estate or Screaming Eagles and the European grand crus
like Latours and Lafittes.
Source: www.winemag.com
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