Gen Z and Millennials Are Here to Save the Wine Industry—If It’s Willing to Listen

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BY MARIA YAGODA6 MIN READ. THE WINE ENTHUSIAST

It’s been a tumultuous year for the wine and spirits industry. Beyond the havoc wreaked by tariffs, health reports, and climate disasters, the ongoing narrative that Americans—and young people, specifically—are drinking less wine and alcohol than they used to has continued to dominate headlines, inspiring nothing short of panic among drinks professionals. However, new reports suggest that the decline in drinking habits isn’t as dramatic as once thought, even as Americans continue to report that they’re drinking less. Not only that, but young people aren’t the ones to blame for the decline.

According to new data from drinks market research firm IWSR, the number of weekly drinks consumed per U.S. adult has barely wavered since 1975, landing somewhere between 10 and 12 a week for four decades. Yes, that number is currently at its lowest since 1995, but the dip only reflects a reduction of 1.1 servings per person per week from the recent peak of 11.5 drinks in 2021. 

“We’re not at any sort of historic low,” Marten Lodewijks, president of IWSR, told Reuters.

To be sure, many factors have seemed to indicate a more dramatic decline in consumption, including dwindling sales. But this new data suggests that the sales drop might have more to do with the economy than with behavioral shifts, and that young people are actually drinking plenty: the proportion of Gen Z adults who reported drinking in the past six months has surged from 2023 (46%) to 2025 (70%). 

Even more noteworthy is the fact that millennials, those reliable scapegoats born between 1981 and 1996, are now drinking more wine than any age demographic in America. That’s right: the generation that inspired the New York Post headline “Millennials are ruining the American wine industry” could be the ones keeping it afloat.

So, no, young people—including Gen Z—are not killing the wine industry.

The just-released 2025 U.S. Wine Consumer Benchmark Segmentation Study found that, in addition to Gen Z drinking more wine over the past year, millennials have officially surpassed Baby Boomers as the biggest wine-drinking cohort in the country.

The Wine Market Council (WMC), which has conducted the study every one to two years since 1997, surveyed nearly 5,000 U.S. adults over the age of 21 and found that 31% of wine drinkers are now millennials, surpassing Baby Boomers at 26%. Gen Z’s share climbed from 9% to 14%, even though only half of that generation can legally drink. 

To many in the industry, the news isn’t surprising. “I think the data confirms what many of us have been seeing on the ground. Younger consumers are drinking wine, they’re just engaging with it differently than past generations,” says Courtney Benham, owner and president of CMB Family of Wines. “The narrative that Gen Z and millennials were walking away from wine never really matched the nuances we were seeing in tasting rooms, events, and direct-to-consumer behaviors. They want authenticity, they want experiences, and they want brands that speak to them in a relatable way … These findings reinforce that the demand is absolutely there when we meet people where they are.”

WMC Research Director Christian Miller was struck by just how much the study’s findings contrast with current discourse surrounding the drinks industry’s woes. “What is interesting about this change, is that despite all the talk about young consumers reducing alcohol, the largest erosion we found was in Baby Boomers—consumers over 60 years of age,” he said in a presentation of the results. 

In some ways, the writing was on the wall. A RaboBank report from earlier this year predicted that as Gen Z ages, their wine consumption will increase. And it looks like that’s happening in real time. 

“This is an ideal outcome for the alcohol industry, which can celebrate the declines in underage drinking while still benefiting when Gen Zers reach their more mature and responsible prime spending years,” said the report. 

Sales Down, But Reasons to Be Cheerful

The fact remains that U.S. beer, wine, and spirit sales have reached their lowest point since 2005, after decades of steady growth. While millennials and Gen Z are consuming more wine, the industry is still experiencing a decline in overall wine consumption. According to WMC’s data, only 29% of Americans who can legally drink say they consume wine every two to three months, as opposed to 33% in 2023.  

Wineries have felt it. 

“It is difficult to tell for us whether the declines are systemic shifts in behavior vs. cyclical shifts due to inflation and the economy,” says Max Rohn, CEO at Wölffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack, New York. “Anecdotally, we hear and see stories of both, so I imagine it’s indeed both, but optimistically, we want it to be more on the side of cyclical.”

Regardless of the root causes, Rohn says that the Long Island-based winery has felt the demographic slumps and adapted accordingly. “Wine sales are harder in our more mature markets of New York and New Jersey, as consumers are indeed buying less wine in general,” he says. “We are not immune to that, but a focus on quality and match with the styles of wines—lighter, fresher, more aromatic—that consumers want certainly helps.” Similarly, as interest in non-alcoholic beverages has risen, Wölffer Estate has chosen to embrace it, rather than lament it: their non-alcoholic sparkling rosé, Spring in a Bottle, “has exploded,” says Rohn. “We are working hard to meet our customers where they are.”

The recent data proves that there is no shortage of millennial and Gen Z wine drinkers. Benham, of CMB, says it’s just a matter of speaking their language. “When the industry creates those entry points, younger drinkers show up,” he says. 

Over the past year, he has observed an uptick in younger visitors, club members, and event attendees at Vina Robles Winery in Paso Robles and Martin Ray in Sonoma County. Approachable, immersive experiences, like Vina Robles’s Rookie Club, a digital-friendly wine club geared towards newcomers, and wine and wood-fired pizza events at Martin Ray, have seen strong engagement from consumers in their twenties and thirties. 

CMB is also launching two new low-alcohol wines next year under its Angeline label, a Semillon and Pinot Noir, that were designed specifically with Gen Z and millennial wine drinkers in mind.

“Millennials are at a life stage where wine naturally becomes more a part of how they spend time, socializing in small circles, traveling and exploring, and hosting dinner parties,” says Benham. “For years they were framed as an ‘emerging’ consumer group, but in reality, they’ve simply grown into becoming the core of the market.”

In his mind, the industry’s main takeaway from the WMC and IWSR data should be that change isn’t a death sentence. “We should embrace what the younger generation is seeking,” he says. “If anything, this new data tells us that when we innovate thoughtfully and authentically, wine continues to resonate deeply with younger generations.”

Marlow Bruce, owner of the wine-focused agency Vine and Venture Communications, has observed this first-hand in her work with wineries: the biggest growth opportunities are with young consumers: “Overall consumption may fluctuate, but interest in wine is very much alive.”