Wine in America: Are the kids drinking enough?
But beyond that, on the personal and cultural level, she sees these changes as indicative of, and resulting from, social unease and disconnection.
“I really think we are losing community on the macroscale and the microscale. I’m not religious, but I have actually had thoughts like, gosh, if I went to church every Sunday I would see my group of people,” Nowell-Smith said.
Wine is centered at this specific nexus of social connection (or lack thereof), environmental awareness and shifting views of alcohol. The new perspective that Millenials and Gen Zers bring to this aspect of the local economy provides a unique look at the changing social values in America, both as a marker of cultural or interpersonal isolation and engines for change.
After all, in vino veritas. In wine there is truth.
Most wine people are awash in the romance and poetry of their trade: winemakers wax philosophical about the magic of making a drink out of a living plant, growers rhapsodize about the hyper specificity of various strains, and collectors point to the subtle regional variations that round out their collections.
The process is part of the point, and that process takes time to unfold.
“Wines have a much longer view, right? If you’re making, let’s say Cabernet, that requires 20 months in barrel, that’s two years before you get to make money on it,” said Bryan Avila, associate faculty for wine studies at Santa Rosa Junior College and tech writer for Wine Business Monthly.
This longer view, however, is taking its toll as older generations age out of heavy wine consumption and minute-by-minute political maneuverings threaten small wineries who are unable to quickly react or adjust course.
The baby boomers have always had a healthy relationship with wine as consumers, said Amy Tesconi, an SRJC instructor who teaches wine club creation, maintenance, and promotion. Now they are simply starting to drink less wine as they get older, or begin drawing from their cellars or collections instead of buying new wine they may not have a chance to drink.
“There’s a lot of conversation around whether younger generations are drinking wine in the same way that older generations did,” Tesconi said. “The issues that I probably focus the most on are how these consumer attitudes are changing.”
And then there are the rising costs and tariffs associated with winemaking, further hampering the industry’s farsighted approach.
“It’s harder for smaller wineries to stay alive with rising costs of everything. You know, everything’s kind of gotten more expensive,” said Chris Christensen, associate faculty for agriculture and natural resources at SRJC.
For a generation with apparently unparalleled acceptance and social license to act at they please, studies show a certain Puritan — or perhaps cautious — streak in young adults; younger millennials and Gen Zers are going on fewer dates, having less sex and — drinking less alcohol.
Young adults aged 18 to 34 are the largest U.S. cohort to express concerns about alcohol consumption and to say that their drinking habits have dropped significantly in recent years.
“Whereas 65% of U.S. adults aged 18 to 34 say alcohol consumption negatively affects one’s health, 37% of those aged 35 to 54 and 39% of those aged 55 and older agree,” according to a 2024 Gallup study.
The role that increased marajuana use plays in this question is also pertinent, but the direct relationship between people smoking weed and drinking less wine as an indicator of social values is more difficult to define than it initially appears.
More Americans smoke marijuana on a daily basis than those who drink alcohol every day, and those who do drink are more likely to express health concerns about their habit. However, marajuana has never had the same mainstream status as a cultural symbol of connection and business.
It’s not just that the youth aren’t getting drunk because they can get high instead, Nowell-Smith said, it’s that both trends show a shift away from communal inebriation.
“Definitely watching my parents made me not want to drink that much,” said SRJC student Kryssia Blandino, 19. “My dad drinks a lot and my stepmom smokes a lot, and I just don’t want to be around that.”
SRJC student Hevan Smith, 18, is studying to become a dental hygienist. “I’ve drank before, but it just wasn’t doing it for me. You know, I feel stupid, I feel sick,” she said. “I just don’t like the way alcohol makes me feel.”
Alcohol is the perfect poison, but only for a while. Upon initial consumption, alcohol increases the body’s levels of dopamine and serotonin, alleviating stress by increasing pleasure and happiness. Once the body processes the alcohol and the increased “feel good hormones,” the brain tries to recalibrate itself, producing more stress hormones like cortisol, according to Brentwood Behavioral Healthcare.
This rapid switch on the cellular level can have drastic effects on one’s mood, causing increased levels of anxiety, restlessness or panic. And thus the vicious cycle continues.
“Alcohol gives me anxiety for the next couple of days. That’s why I don’t really drink,” said SRJC student Nick Mendez, 25.
Of course, the United States has always had a bizarre approach to alcohol: unlike the majority of southern European cultures, which have long histories of wine and alcohol consumption as social and cultural norm (French schools were serving wine to kids into the 1950s), American kids end up drinking covertly until the ripe old age of 21, when the law says they can figure things out on their own.
“I’m paranoid of what could happen if I don’t wait,” said SRJC student Savanna Conwell, 18.
Young people have always looked for the best bang for their buck when it comes to alcohol: cheap beer and hard booze have always been — and will remain — the most popular vehicles for a buzz.
But there is also a prevalent pessimism and lack of social connection that winemakers like Kate Nowell-Smith point to when trying to explain why older young adults haven’t started drinking wine as they age out of partying.
“People want connection, but we don’t have it,” Nowell-Smith said. “Social media has destroyed connection and community. People are prioritizing getting likes from strangers over having a face-to-face conversation, and that’s terrible. Watching Netflix and getting high alone or playing a video game online with someone around the world is not at all the same as cooking a meal with them, eating food and drinking wine.”
SRJC business student Kenan Habt, 20, echoed that sentiment. She does not drink or smoke, but spoke about the way she – and many of her peers – see the world.
“It’s not looking too great,” Habt said. “There’s a bunch of concerns. There’s no one bigger than the other. It’s just all worry.”
Nowell-Smith summed it up similarly: “Yeah, we’re cooked. It’s not looking great for us.”
For wine to maintain its economic heft, Nowell-Smith said, the industry and wine culture will have to focus on connection.
“It should be about bringing families and friends together. It should be about sitting at the table,” Nowell-Smith said.
Michael Traverso is the vice president of business management for Wilson Daniels, a high-end importer and wholesaler of wine from around the world who mostly sells to upscale restaurants and wine shops who cater to collectors.
The kinds of collectors who end up buying the wines he helps import tend to fixate on a style or category of wine, he said. They buy deep so that they can preserve a memory of that moment in time of that vintage and the style of the wine for years.
Traverso doesn’t see this “collector” segment of the wine market going away anytime soon, but the luxury and privilege associated with wine culture do present a barrier to more socially conscious generations.
The clichés and typecasting in the wine business run deep. Unlike hard seltzers, which have done an excellent job of marketing themselves across class and culture, wine still comes with stereotypes and expectations, Nowell-Smith said.
“There’s this idea that women drink Chardonnay, men drink red wine, and you have to be a banker to appreciate it,” she said.
Younger drinkers are splitting from the habits of their parents, both as a conscious act of nonconformity and as concepts like brand loyalty fade from the cultural zeitgeist.
“People will criticize Gen Z for not being loyal. Like maybe baby boomers fixated on one producer, and they would join the wine club and buy for years, but the new generation seems to be way more exploratory,” Traverso said.
Distinctive and innovative wines such as orange wines, alternative whites and chillable reds were unheard of 20 years ago but now are flooding the market, even becoming a meme in the wine community, explained Christensen.
