UNDER THE SURFACE | How should the fine-wine world attract a younger audience?

In recent years, the wine industry has been almost obsessively focused on attracting younger consumers. So how do the under-40s get into fine wine in the first place, and what can the industry do to encourage them? A new report sheds light on the issue…

When, way back in the 2000s, I was recruited to edit Decanter magazine, it was with a brief to attract a younger audience. That goal has been a constant refrain across the wine trade throughout my subsequent 20-odd years in an industry that often likes to beat itself up about its inability to appeal to younger consumers. In recent years, though, this obsession has become, in the eyes of many, almost existential.  

Now, fine-wine thinktank Areni Global has set out to provide some pointers in a study: The New Fine Wine Consumer: How People Under 40 Find Their Way Into Fine Wine. The report is based largely around a survey conducted with the global members and customers of 67 Pall Mall and Berry Bros & Rudd, along with wine clubs for younger consumers, such as university wine societies, amplified by one-on-one interviews and focus groups. 

Setting the context for the report, Areni identified a series of wider demographic, economic and cultural factors creating what it called a ‘bottleneck in the pipeline responsible for the next generation of fine wine buyers’ which threatened to ‘throttle’ future growth. Across Europe and China, the 25-40 age cohort is shrinking. Entry-level professional ladders are being hollowed out by AI, eliminating the graduate supply chain that once produced high-earning collectors. Wealth is concentrating rapidly, serving to reinforce dynastic purchasing power rather than creating first-generation buyers. And alcohol’s cultural legitimacy is eroding, under pressure from a health lobby that is pushing governments to implement warning labels and advertising restrictions – pressure that is ‘unlikely to let up’. ‘If fine wine doesn’t adapt to these pressures,’ Areni warns, ‘It will be serving fewer fine-wine lovers in the future.’

So who are these consumers? What attracts them? And why do some then drop out of the fine-wine pipeline? According to Areni, three conditions determine whether early curiosity converts into sustained interest: access, education and community. ‘Access is about more than the ability to pay,’ says the report. ‘It also means younger buyers being able to participate even when they don’t have legacy relationships. They need an environment that’s transparent, or they disengage.’ Crucially, says the report, younger consumers learn about fine wine from their friends and networks – and it only becomes a regular practice when they trust the gatekeepers they turn to. The passion is then sustained through continued access and education, with younger consumers pursuing wine education at more than double the rate of older cohorts – not only to improve their knowledge, but also so they don’t have to rely on those gatekeepers. 

A like-minded community is critical, because people spend and taste in accordance with their peer group. Without that community, enthusiasm dissipates. Set alongside this, it seems the role of family is not as important as previously assumed. ‘The idea that the practice of engaging with fine wine is passed down at the family table turns out to be largely a myth,’ says the report. Instead, says Areni, a ‘boom moment’ – a dinner, a bottle, a trip – is more likely to trigger curiosity. And almost without exception, these moments are mediated by friends, not family. 

The report also suggests that fine-wine merchants are losing out on up to 50% of potential customers. Women initially tend to show an interest in fine wine in equal numbers to men, attending more events and committing more heavily to formal wine education. Yet only a quarter go on to become regular fine-wine buyers, with participation falling sharply when women enter their 30s. According to Pauline Vicard, co-founder and executive director of Areni Global: ‘Following fine wine closely – studying lists and becoming a collector – takes time. And at an age when most women are struggling to juggle family and career, what woman has time??’ 

There is another difference between the sexes too. Merchants and restaurateurs report that when men drink with other men, they are more likely to engage in displays of status, ordering rarer and more expensive bottles, and more of them. When women drink with other women, the focus becomes what the group will like and enjoy, rather than status. Such habits tend to lead more men into the rarefied world of buying wine to lay down and/or as investments. 

‘The wine trade has always recognized that there is a difference between the person who fills up a cellar and the person who buys nice wine when they want it,’ says the report. ‘The stereotype is of someone who buys by the case, thinking about the moment in years to come when he – it’s always a man – will open the wine.’

Such ‘collectors’, says the report, are a fundamentally different group of people to mere ‘buyers’ – even high-spending buyers. ‘Collectors enjoy wine as a hunting pursuit, driven by anticipation and the thrill of doing something difficult,’ Areni says, adding that, for such a cohort, the complexity of wine is a key element of its appeal. Yet people begin to identify as collectors surprisingly early; more than half of the fine wine buyers surveyed aged 25 and under already see themselves that way. Their collecting begins to accelerate in their early 30s, when they acquire more money and space.

Professor Shirley Mueller, neuroscientist, psychiatrist and author of Inside the Head of a Collector, has spent years studying what happens in the brain when someone collects. Her work suggests that collecting is a positive activity rooted in the brain’s reward systems – a source of joy, rather than a symptom of neurosis. ‘It’s the chase [that] is the reward, not the final purchase,’ she claims. And while it’s often assumed that collectors are motivated by financial return, Areni’s research suggests that appreciation in value serves mainly to validate a collector’s choices. The real motivations are the pursuit and the sharing. 

‘Collecting activates oxytocin, the molecule associated with social bonding,’ says the report. ‘This is why collecting is rarely a solitary pursuit. The sharing of a prized bottle, particularly over a meal with people who realise its significance, generates a sense of connection and belonging that goes well beyond the wine itself.’ This is something wine lovers know well – nobody wants to open their treasured bottle for people who won’t appreciate what they’re drinking. ‘This means that events, dinners and wine get-togethers are not just marketing activities,’ says Areni. ‘They are essential to activating and retaining collectors, while also introducing them to peers who they can enjoy opening their bottles with.’

Critically, collecting is a socially transmitted practice. The merchants interviewed for the Areni describe using event invitations as a litmus test; younger customers who respond enthusiastically to being included in tastings and dinners are the ones most likely to develop into long-term collectors. And the younger the consumer, the more important that community is to them. Around 40% of 31-35 -year-olds surveyed indicate that most of their friends are also active fine wine lovers. Such groups play a pivotal role in shaping each another’s palates, reinforcing their shared passion and building the depth and quality of their cellars. 

For these groups to function, however, aspiring wine lovers need to find others with a similar spending power. So while the wine trade once sold bottles, now it needs to sell the conditions under which such bottles are opened and enjoyed. ‘Above all, the industry must abandon the idea that scarcity creates desire,’ says the report. ‘In this new economic world, scarcity without access is likely to lead to resentment. People need to see that there’s a place inside the system for them, even if they don’t have £200,000 a year to spend on their cellar.’ As one London-based respondent said, there are fine wine merchants who will not give access unless customers are big buyers. ‘You won’t really have a relationship with an advisor. You can’t discuss what you like, what you’ve tasted, and forget accessing the top bottles,’ the respondent said. As a consequence, Areni argues, the trade should make it easier to buy fine wine in smaller quantities. ‘If fine wine becomes restricted to the extremely wealthy, it will vanish from view.’ 

‘Fine wine has not lost its social relevance,’ concludes the report. ‘But to maintain its prime position into the future, it needs to open up new pathways that take into account the needs of the next generation, including community formation, transparency of pricing, and better wine education. If the industry wants younger buyers, it needs to open more doors.’ 

Hmm… an aspirational but approachable fine-wine community offering a broad list and accessible margins, plus events and forums in which to explore and learn about wine at all levels with like-minded peers. And maybe a financial incentive for under-30s, to further encourage younger consumers. Someone should start a wine-centric members club like that…

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