Cheers to That: Millennials Are Drinking More Wine Than Any Other Generation

With the weekend almost in reach, many of us are already mentally picking out what bottle of wine we should grab after work.

Too early you say?

Well, we’re here to suggest never too early to be thinking about wine, especially if you’re a millennial. Because according to a recent study, millennials are consuming more wine than any other generation, surpassing the consumption of both Generation X and Baby Boomers.

For the purposes of this study, millennials make up the population of people currently aged 21-38, Generation X covers people aged 39-50 and Baby Boomers range from 51-69.

Earlier this week, the Wine Market Council (WMC) presented findings from its 2015 survey. According to Wine Enthusiast Magazine, the survey focused on which Americans were drinking wine, how often they were drinking it, and how much they were consuming when they did drink it.

The council divided the people in the survey into two categories: “high frequency drinkers” (you drink every day or several times a week) and “occasional drinkers” (you drink once a week to almost never).

Baby Boomers made up the base of high-frequency wine drinkers at 38 per cent, according to John Gillespie, president of the Wine Market Council. Millennials only accounted for 30 per cent of high-frequency drinkers, but they still dominated in consumption, accounting for 40 per cent of occasional wine drinkers (Boomers had 31 per cent).

“The youngest Millennials reached legal drinking age in 2015,” says Gillespie, noting not only the challenge of appealing to the generation’s diverse multicultural make-up, but also that of the next generation of potential wine drinkers, iGeneration.

“The iGeneration, is just starting to come of age and they are increasingly connected,” says Gillespie.

Wine consumption for millennials is continually on the rise, as evidenced by a 10 per cent increase in the past two years. Gillespie also found that in the same period Generation X experienced a five per cent growth while Baby Boomers experienced a six per cent decrease in consumption.

Millennials deserve some recognition for their drunken nights, according to Wine Enthusiast, as we account for the largest volume of wine consumed in 2015 at 159.6 million cases.

The report found that Boomers purchased the bulk of domestic wine while millennials were more willing to experiment, driving imports of discovery regions like Greece, Portugal, and South Africa.

While we can’t say for sure that the data would be the same for Canadians, we’re willing to bet that our population is right on par with our neighbours to the south. So the next time someone tries to say that millennials are lazy, feel free to point out that we’re dedicated and seasoned wine drinkers.

And that’s something we’ll always drink to.

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