Embrace the Bad Wine News

It is a bad day for wine news, but it's necessary to read it and internalize it.

There will be more days like this ahead. It’s inevitable.

For those of you who keep a close watch on the wine industry, you had to notice that today’s news was filled with the bad kind; the kind that could be a harbinger of a shrinking industry.

This is the most important article of the day and maybe the most important article you’ll read in months on the challenges faced by the wine industry from nefarious corners: “How Neo-Prohibitionists Came to Shape Alcohol Policy”.

Written by Felicity Carter and published by Wine Business, the article describes the forces that are foisting the “No Safe Level of Alcohol Consumption” message on the world. Felicity describes the NGOs behind this effort not to address abusive consumption, but rather to eliminate all drinking. It is the best reporting yet on the messaging and powers behind the messaging faced by the wine industry.

Then we get the IWSR analysis of the No/Low drinks category: “Who Is Winning From the Moderation Trend?” In this piece, we get this nugget:

Full-strength alcohol categories continue to be replaced the most by low-alcohol beverages – particularly replacing beer/cider, for example in Spain and Brazil,” explains Goldspink. Meanwhile, spirits are being replaced more in markets such as the US and South Africa, where spirits are the most purchased full-strength category.”

Meanwhile, Blake Gray writing at Wine-Searcher gives us “The Big U.S. Wine Market Roundup” which examines findings from the recent Wine Market Council conference held in Napa. Despite a bit of good news here and there from the conference, Blake is compelled to lead with this:

“Why don't you pour a glass of wine, relax, and join me for a relaxing story about how wine isn't selling. The Wine Market Council held a conference in Napa on Wednesday to deliver more bad news to the industry, this time sliced and diced by age group, race and gender. It won't be news to most readers that 2023 was a dreadful year for wine sales, with a 9 percent drop in shipments from producers to distributors. It was a bad enough year that conferences like this one now focus on finding a few bright spots among the rubble.”

You really do need to squint to find those few bright spots.

Finally today, we get this article from Jess Lander at the SF Chronicle: “Is Wine the ‘2024 Cigarette?’ Younger Generations View on Alcohol Is Bad News For Industry.”

Lander’s piece was triggered largely by more evidence of young folk’s retreat from drinking that came from a Tik Tok Influencer who wanted to know what was going on:

“In response to reports of a global decline in wine consumption, sommelier and social media influencer Warner Boin posted a video to her TikTok page asking her followers, consisting largely of Millennials and Generation Z, to explain why they aren’t drinking wine. The response — 1.6 million views and nearly 35,000 comments — reveals a growing view among younger people that alcohol is “poison.” “I was curious to hear from the source,” said Boin, a Millennial living in Sonoma who has amassed nearly 120,000 TikTok followers under the username @confidenceuncorked. “The thing that came up more than anything was people saying they’re just not drinking anymore. That was resounding. It made it feel very serious to me.” Boin partnered with a data analyst to dig deeper into the feedback. She found that health concerns accounted for 20% of responses — many of which referred to alcohol as “toxic,” “poison” or the “2024 cigarette.” 

These Bad News stories are important and necessary. It is especially important that they, like today, come in heavy batches: It makes it nearly impossible for people in the wine industry directly impacted by the trends outlined in the articles to ignore what’s happening. As soon as more industry folks embrace and face the problem, the sooner collective action will be taken. And without collective action, it’s entirely possible that the assault on wine and alcohol will turn into an onslaught.

Regular readers of Fermentation will know that this is an issue I’ve been focused on for quite some time; that I’ve written on the movement to reduce wine consumption. I am focused on this because among the few things I’m sure of is that happiness and strong interpersonal relationships are what define a good life. And I know that responsible, moderate, and mindful consumption of wine contribute positively to both those things.

But I also know this: I recognize the efforts being made by groups of Prohibitionists to make wine into cigarettes. It is the same kind of methodical effort that is carried out by the wholesale tier when they attempt to keep the rest of the wine industry struggling under their boot. It’s money. It’s intense lobbying. It’s dishonest marketing. And it’s powerful.