Wine and younger consumers: finding a language that feels less remote
There is a moment in wine congresses when the discussion moves away from grape varieties and appellations and turns to something else: language, audiences, and what wine means to people who did not grow up with a bottle on the dinner table. It is a subtle shift, but it says more than any technical debate. In parts of the sector, the challenge is no longer just how to sell wine, but how to make it legible again.
At the Assoenologi congress, the Italian association of oenologists, held in late May in Conegliano, in the heart of the Prosecco Superiore DOCG zone, Riccardo Cotarella spoke of declining consumption and a waning passion for wine, especially among younger people. However the figures are read across different markets and habits, the broader picture is one of a growing distance that the industry can no longer simply note and move past. It needs to be understood as a cultural challenge as well as a commercial one.
The readings from Nomisma Wine Monitor, an Italian research centre focused on the sector, point to another sensitive issue: between 2008 and 2023, the share of habitual drinkers fell among younger age groups, while consumption became more concentrated among older ones. That is not just a statistical footnote. It is a sign that generational renewal is becoming harder to secure. Without new drinkers coming in, the market loses depth, not only volume.
The issue is the story, before the product
One of the clearest points to emerge is language. Over time, wine has built a precise, technical, sometimes ceremonial vocabulary. Tannins, structure, complexity, aromatic persistence: useful terms for those who know them, but they can also become a barrier for people approaching wine from the outside. The issue is not that younger drinkers are uninterested. It is that they often encounter a code that seems designed for someone else.
Marianna Neri, a wine entrepreneur at Casanova di Neri, has highlighted the importance of talking about wine in a more accessible way, rooted in place and territory. It is a meaningful distinction: not a step down in quality, but a choice of tone that invites rather than excludes.
One interesting example comes from Sardinia, where the CannoNow project was developed through a collaboration between Sardegna Ricerche, the University of Cagliari, IED, and Assoenologi. Built around Cannonau, the island’s emblematic grape, it tries to speak to younger audiences using tools from the present: social-media visuals, memes, urban activations, and a red thread inspired by the work of Maria Lai, appearing in the streets as a sign of curiosity before any explanation followed. Rather than presenting wine as a closed world reserved for insiders, the project looks for a more immediate point of entry without losing substance.
That is where the discussion becomes useful: the goal is not to simplify wine until it becomes thin, but to introduce it in a less intimidating way.
More open formats, more direct experiences
Format matters too. If wine remains locked inside the usual codes of trade fairs, it risks speaking mainly to people who are already inside the circuit. That is why some events are experimenting with looser setups, closer to the final audience.
El Gallo Wine Fest in León, Spain, is one such case: tastings, short-format masterclasses, and a porrón contest inside a setting that feels more informal than a traditional wine fair. The historic venue of the Real Colegiata de San Isidoro gives the event a strong backdrop without making it rigid. Here wine is treated less like an object on display and more like an experience to move through, with an element of play and shared sociability that recalls how drinking once belonged to everyday gesture as much as to expertise.
These examples, on their own, do not prove a broad shift across the industry. But they do show that in some corners of wine there is a willingness to move beyond closed formats and try to reach people who currently stand outside wine’s usual language.
For now, that seems to be the direction: not making wine simpler in an absolute sense, but making it feel less remote. Bringing it into experiences and codes younger people already recognise, without turning it into something else. In other words, finding a more natural doorway in. And that may be where wine’s ability to stay close begins.
