Oct 16: It is often believed that the future of wine in India will be decided by the millennials (1980-2000 born) who are more travelled, better educated, evolved and more experimental, but as confirmed by a report by Wine Intelligence in London, this age group is also inclined to gin, craft beer and cocktails, making it difficult to predict but they hold the key to increasing the wine culture
A new definitive report into the drinking behaviours of millennials -born between 1980 and 2000, has put to bed concerns that younger drinkers are completely abandoning wine in favour of craft beers or spirits – or even eschewing alcohol completely. Data released by Wine Intelligence, London indicates that participation in the wine category is not declining but stable for millennials. But their behaviour pattern is significantly different from older generations and even the same age group ten years ago.
While they care more, spend more, and use wine a little more often than their age group of 18-39 year old in 2009, their choice of drinks spectrum is also wider across alcohol categories such as gin, craft beer and cocktails. This implies that wine will have to be promoted harder to keep this group engaged.
According to a report in Harpers, the COO of Wine Intelligence, Richard Halstead says that people in this age group drinking wine in the UK at least once a month have a much more engaged relationship with wine than the corresponding group 10 years ago. “They are more likely to agree with statements such as "Wine is important to my lifestyle" and "I have a strong interest in wine".
Reportedly, they also tend to spend more on wine in the off-trade and use price as a proxy for quality and tend to buy on the spur of the moment and are less likely to be incentivised by the offers in supermarkets or lower cost grocery stores.
However, the data also suggests that younger people have a broader repertoire of alcoholic beverages compared with 10 years ago, with increases in incidence of usage of craft beer, gin, rum and cocktails. This implies that wine needs to work harder to maintain its share of alcoholic beverage volume.
‘Losing the attention of millennials is one of the big threats to the wine category over the next five years, along with reducing alcohol consumption and increased taxation’, Wine Intelligence said. While reduced consumption may not be as much of threat in India as in UK, the high taxation of up to 300% effectively, is a real threat with this group often preferring a couple of glasses of beer or rum or even shots of gin or tequila because of the cost factor.
Incidentally, the monthly wine drinking population in UK is steady but there is a decreasing incidence of heavy users and binge drinkers with the proportion of regular wine drinkers who drink wine almost every day decreasing from 16% in 2007 to 11% in 2019. Since wine drinking is a relatively new phenomenon, the number of wine drinkers is rising in India while the heavy drinkers have not been contacted yet in any survey. Even the total wine volume sold in UK has fallen 18% from 135.8million cases in 2009 to 111.2m in 2018, cites the report, whereas there is an annual growth of 10-12% in India despite the high costs and regressive excise policies in most states, with less than 4 million cases consumed.
The survey findings of Wine Intelligence also suggest that millennials are actually spending more on wine than they used to. Moreover, 59% of the 25-29 year old population has indicated strong interest in wine” compared to 43% in 2009, with a similar pattern emerging for 30-34 year olds.
Of course, producers and importers have to keep in mind how to draw these millennials to wine culture as a part of their superior and healthier lifestyle by constantly monitoring trends in their choices, packaging and labelling, food habits and taste flavours and adjusting their marketing strategies accordingly.
Subhash Arora
If you Like this article please click on the Like button