Is Wine "Appreciation" an aging sport?

[Craig(NZ)]

Not sure what it is like in Australia but a trend I am noticing and have heard comment from via retailers. Is Wine the new Bowls Club? Is it the new Anglican Church? Is it the new Tramping Club? Is it an aging "hobby"?

Trends I am seeing in the NZ wine consumer scene

1. Wine tastings mainly attended by the grey hair brigade
2. Less Wine Tastings around, less frequently
3. Less Wine Media especially in Print
4. Wine customers being older

Why is this?

1. A general disinterest among younger folk in fine wine
2. Growth in other competing areas eg Craft Beer
3. The want it "now" generation?
4. Debt pressures on the young
5. Disposable income going elsewhere
6. The rise of supermarkets as retailers with no added education/ tasting/ excitment

These are just conversation starters. Would be good to hear what other people have noticed/ think

[Craig(NZ)]

how the hell did i post this ^ twice. What a retard. Sorry!

[markg]

Without trawling through a pile of spreadsheets I get the opposite impression and feel that youth (20's) is asserting itself within the fine wine market and using social media to connect.

[sjw_11]

Hmm a fascinating question...

When I lived in Adelaide I might have agreed with this. Head along to the Melbourne St weekly affair and shoulder past the same group of retired/semi retired doctors & lawyers every week.

In Sydney its almost the opposite ... wine is being hi-jacked by the Surry Hills hipster brigade pushing their barrows full of bio-organic-dynamic-unfiltered-bio-picked under a full moon wine who will only drink something with no air miles on it and where they know the wine makers star sign & favourite colour. The same crowd who go to a wine bar to drink Resch's from a can because its an "ironic statement on the world today".

But then again perhaps we should look more at the too-posh for you Ultimo Cellars type crowd who really only like a wine if its a status symbol, and rarely will be caught dead drinking anything as passe as an Australian wine. This crowd is generally older, but to be honest they blur together so much I can't rightly be sure.

Or theres the Dan Murphy's mix of 19-yr olds getting Moscato to go with their vodka cruisers & bourbon cokes, and posh 25-yr olds fetching Bollinger for their Investment Banking parties (these days a stereotype rather than a reality). And the nice gentlemen I saw the other day at my local Dan's attempting to garrulously exchange his cask of Coolabah which was apparently the incorrect flavour.

If new products are a sign, perhaps someone can tell me what the latest product from Banrock Station tells us about the 20-something market: its a "wine based cocktail" with a fruit flavoured infusion sold in a 2L cask format, and advertised with images of 20ish yr olds having parties. I can only hope the words "massive" and "failure" will soon be required.

Disclaimer to the above: I am 27, have cellared wine since I was 18, and regularly have been to both Melb St and Ultimo Cellars, and I live 2 suburbs over from Surry Hills, where I go regularly. I do not however have a moustache, and I am only occasionally fond of skinny jeans. I tried Resch's only once & never again. I also work for an investment bank. My tongue lives firmly in cheek. Make of all of this what you will...

[odyssey]

Remove the tongue in cheek sarcasm and I agree generally with Sam that in Sydney the wine crowd is alive and kicking with a disproportionate number of hipsters (enough to make this 35 year old nerd feel out of place) and I believe has been so even longer in Melbourne with all its alleyway bars for some years now (it's probably old hat for them, but in Sydney it's still growing).

A little too hipster? Possibly but I think it's a very good thing for the local wine industry and is brilliant for the burgeoning inner-city suburban cozy-wine-bar business.

[via collins]

Er yes, those alleyways....
I'm in Melbourne, rather a gentrified section of it, but there is no denying the crossover factor of the skinny jeans and youthful beards demographic. Very savvy wine retailer
Blackhearts And Sparrows are a key driver, as well as social media. Craig, it might warm the cockles of your heart to see the average age of a B and S wine tasting. A long way from the bowling club, that's for sue.
Terrific topic too, nice work.
Cheers.

[DJ]

Interesting question - but as a parent of 2 primary school kids actually going to a tasting group and having the time to be seen wine tasting is a dream for the future. That being said did a fair bit before children. Perhaps that is it - the middle group are too busy paying mortgages and getting kids to school, sport and music to join up. A pursuit for before and after kids - so a missing 20 years? Also what wine money I have goes to maintaining the cellar.

[Waiters Friend]

Good question, Craig. I'm happy to say that, in WA at least, it is not a sport purely for retirees.

Whether it was when I worked on cellars door, attended cellar doors as a patron, or attending organised wine tastings, I see a real mix of ages. For example, a Wine Industry Association tasting last week saw a range from 20s to 70s, reasonably spread. I reckon average was around 40.

It depends on what age you are when the wine bug bites. I am happy to say people seem to be infected earlier, certainly earlier than I was (late 20s). I also reckon my kids will be attending tastings, etc earlier than I ever did.

Cheers

Allan

[mudz]

interesting topic, i think wine appreciation has that stereotype of being primarily for the older audience. i am 25 and have small wine cellar . i am finding that my friends are now getting interested in wine. i think it just age development thing from going out and binge drinking stage to be more "sensible" and enjoying what they drink.

i have also read static that younger people are more likely to spend more on the average bottle of wine. i have also being in wine store and staff ignore me because of my age.

[Craig(NZ)]

I also think this is being reflected in quality of wine ranges in stores. 10 years ago your average booze barn, wine shop or supermarket had a far more interesting range of wines than I see in Auckland today. Supermarkets are very ho hum and so is traditional liquor. yes there is a sprinkling of good wine but obviously cost of inventory has risen and rate of sale decreased on wines such as say Henschke, top end Shiraz such as Amargh, and you name its equivalent - top waiheke, cult Hawkes Bay etc.

What is thrust in front of us these days are the corporate marketed brigade...Penfolds, Mt Difficulty, Oyster Bay, Villa Maria.....etc

What is in front of us is what we drink. Going through my father in laws cellar recently it looks just like a miniture of a certain wine shop he frequents....once upon a time my cellar looked the same as that same shop too (truckloads of 95/96 Charles Melton Nine Popes for example!)

So do our cellars and drinking look as the corporate world plans? Those who buy the most space, spin the most deals, spend on promotion and advertising? And are the marketing corporates/ social media savvy winning the game with the younger set??

Its all good thoughts and I guess I am at an age now at 41, where you do look back and notice trends/ changes and join some dots which i guess is more difficult for say someone that is 25 and been ninto wine for 4 or 5 years.

Is "cellaring" different these days? Do people buy short/medium term wines and "pantry load"/ have "stock on hand"/ "collect" instead of "cellaring" which is buying wine designed to age and improve in the bottle for future drinking? Quicker turnover?? Do many of todays wine entusiasts intend to have dozens of wines which they will keep for 20 years?

[Michael McNally]

Don't for get that 40 is the new 30. As an (ahem) 33-year old then, I know plenty of my contemporaries who are into good wine. In warmer climes however, for blokes particularly it simply makes more sense to drink beer. Global warming will only increase this trend.

We get plenty of 'less old' folks to offlines in Brisbane.

Cheers

Michael

[sjw_11]

how the hell did i post this ^ twice. What a retard. Sorry!

Its alright I managed to post my reply 3 times at first luckily there was a delete button!

[odyssey]

The only I have really come across younger and I mean 20ish, are at the wine festivals but at small wine tasting, I find more 30s and up.

I agree, the average wine-hipster age seems to be mid 30s. Not seeing a lot of 20 year olds at wine bars but seeing lots of friends and colleagues get into their early-to-mid 30s and start discovering/enquiring about wine.

[Loztralia]

It's hard to imagine two more diverse crowds than I saw at two Sydney events in the last year: Ultimo Wine Centre's Yves Cuilleron dinner at the Bentley, and the New Generation Hunter Valley pop-up bar (apart from the fact they were both pretty damn middle class). The diversity actually made me feel pretty good, because it's not always the case in Australia - I still get odd looks from my more alternative-culture friends because I also like standing on the hill at Leichhardt Oval with a VB or two

[griff]

Seeing some Gen Y action here in the UK. They don't have the disposable income of the Baby Boomer set however. Gen X are trying but weighed down with children and mortgages

[porschemad911]

Interesting topic! I'm 29 (so what, beginning of Gen Y?) and only started appreciating wine over the last 3 years or so. Of all my friends roughly my age, I can only think of 4 or 5 who are also interested in wine. I think for many younger people, it starts from an event that gives exposure. For me it was through my now wife, who has enjoyed drinking wine for quite a while. I remember bringing her to a sparkling wine making workshop, tasting and birthday lunch at a local winery. This really opened my eyes to how delicious well-made wine could taste (especially with food) and the work that goes into making it. Before that I only had my sister's sauv blancs to go on, thought they all tasted like slightly different types of vinegar, so stuck with my craft beers. I find that once the initial interest is piqued, it quickly gains momentum, eg winery trips, exploring restaurant wine lists, exploring bottle shop shelves. My sister's been enjoying the exploration too, enjoys drinking widely beyond her sauv blancs now! Maybe it runs in the family, since then have discovered my Mum has a few hundred bottles tucked away in her wardrobes.

John