Before you continue: please take part in the polls in this article. They’re short (just a few minutes), but they matter. I want to test whether what is already measurable in the U.S. is also becoming noticeable here in Europe, and, above all, where wine is losing ground and why.
There’s no denying that, in recent years, the wine world has been increasingly concerned about its future. The topic comes up in almost every conversation, with the same recurring question: younger consumers drink differently, and for many people wine is no longer the default choice.
That concern was also the reason for episode 2589 of the Italian Wine Podcast, which I listened to recently. The focus was on the U.S. market, but what emerges there often echoes in Europe. The podcast was an eye-opener because it finally put into words what many of us here have been “feeling” for a while. Backed by data, and with a a clear-eyed analysis of what is shifting.
And it raised one question for me: what does this look like here, in today’s European market? Because something is shifting here too. Not in the cellar, but in the shopping basket. In Europe it still feels (for now) less dramatic than in America, but the undercurrent is familiar: younger drinkers are building different routines, alternatives have grown rapidly, the health narrative carries more weight, and the “entry point” into wine is less straightforward than we like to think.
That’s why this opinion piece deliberately starts from the American research (Wine Opinions, discussed at Wine2Wine/Vinitaly in Chicago), but with a European goal: what can we in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the rest of Europe learn before we end up playing catch-up. I’m writing this to sharpen the conversation, to look for answers, and to get a more realistic view of what may be coming our way. For consumers, wine retailers, importers, and the on-trade (bars and restaurants).
The American wake-up call, read through a European lens
For this research, a broad group, a broad group of 21–39-year-olds was surveyed. People who drink beer, wine, and/or spirits. Not only wine drinkers, and that’s exactly what makes the research useful. It shows the real competition in the glass, not just the opinions of regular wine lovers.
The key signals are threefold:
- For many under-40s, wine is no longer the automatic choice.
- Some are shifting to other categories (beer, spirits, ready-to-drink (RTDs)).
- Even among those who still drink wine, value perception is a major issue: “the wines I like have become too expensive.”
Now, Europe is not America. You won’t get a one-to-one copy of those figures here, simply because our drinking culture, taxation, retail landscape, and wine traditions are structured differently. But the pattern is still recognisable.
Many European countries have always had a strong beer culture (and that culture has evolved enormously: specialty and craft beers, craft, low-alcohol). At the same time, in cities and tourist hotspots, cocktail and aperitif culture is growing: spritz variants, long drinks, bars that deliberately sell ‘the moment. And then there’s another category that is normalising in Europe faster than we sometimes admit: ready-to-drink beverages and premixes, from canned cocktails and canned spritz to light, sparkling alcohol mixes and low-alcohol alternatives.
That’s exactly why this research matters for Belgium and the Netherlands: it forces us to look at wine as a choice within a crowded set of occasions. But before we dig into that choice, we need to ask one basic question: do we even drink the same amount of alcohol today as we did a few years ago?
Vote in the polls below. These are the two anchor points the rest of this opinion piece builds on.
From here it gets interesting: once we know whether we drink less and what our default choice is, we can look much more sharply at where wine is losing ground and where it still holds its place.
Wine isn’t losing people, wine is losing moments
The core question in the rest of the podcast isn’t “which generation?” but “which moment?” When do people drink what? In marketing, these are called “occasions,” but in real life it’s simple: Friday night, a terrace, aperitif time, the park, dinner at home, a party.
If you look at categories through that lens, it becomes clear why wine is finding it harder to be chosen “by default” today.
Beer is social and spontaneous: low barrier to entry, little decision fatigue, and suitable almost anywhere.
Cocktails and spirits more often feel like a treat: experience, bar culture, mixability and often a clear “I want this now” moment.
Ready-to-drinks and premixes (canned cocktails, canned spritz) win on convenience: single-serve, predictable flavour, hardly any thinking required.
Wine is still strongly linked to food, knowledge, choice, and context. That’s both its strength and its handicap.
In Europe, you increasingly see that mechanism at work. Many young people still drink alcohol, but less according to classic patterns. A bottle of wine requires planning: you need to open it, you need glasses, you have to choose. A can or premix requires nothing. And if you choose “wrong” once with wine , like too acidic, too tannic, served too warm (or too cold), too much oak . You can feel uncertain quickly: did I choose wrong?
With the next poll, I want to understand in which moments you actually drink wine — or, put differently: why do you reach for wine in one moment, but not in another?
Price is rarely just price: trust and choice play a role too
In the U.S. session, one line stood out because it sounded so human: many occasional wine drinkers who are drinking less wine say the wines they like have become too expensive. You can chalk that up to inflation, full stop. But with wine, there’s almost always something else going on underneath: price is linked to uncertainty.
Many people have a mental ceiling for what they want to spend on a bottle. And we have to be honest: wine prices have risen noticeably in recent years. As a consumer, you can then come to a sober conclusion: the amount I’m willing to spend no longer delivers the quality or pleasure I expect.
So what do you do? You can raise your budget, but that doesn’t always fit your personal budget reality. Or you buy more selectively: fewer bottles, more “safe bets,” less experimentation.
And here’s the nuance that often gets lost: “too expensive” doesn’t always mean “I can’t afford it.” It often means: “I don’t want to spend that amount on a gamble.” Once the middle segment shifts upward, “choosing safely” becomes harder. Especially in hospitality, where margins sometimes mean a glass of wine comes close to the price of a bottle in a shop.
So price matters, but it’s rarely the only barrier. In conversations, you hear the same other factors more and more often:
- Health: you drink less or lighter, and then every bottle becomes a more conscious choice. Campaigns and trends like Dry January or Tournée Minérale play a role, consciously or not.
- Uncertainty/decision stress: the range is huge, style differences are huge, and you don’t want a bad buy.
- Convenience: buying, opening, serving, possibly storing… sometimes it feels like “too much hassle.”
- Image: in some contexts, wine can still feel “too serious,” “too chic,” or “too connoisseur-y”. That light snobbery you might bounce off.
In short, I want to know: what is your biggest barrier to buying (more) wine today?
Health: from routine to a conscious choice
Let’s take a closer look at the health angle, because the podcast highlights a clear headwind for wine: a growing group of consumers is thinking differently about alcohol. Even moderate drinking is increasingly seen as ‘unhealthy. Europe differs in culture and drinking norms, but the movement is visible here too: Dry January, Tournée Minérale, no- and low-alcohol alternatives, “mindful drinking,” and a broader focus on sleep, training, and wellbeing.
For wine, it’s a double-edged story.
On one hand, it’s negative: alcohol becomes less of an automatic routine and more of a conscious choice. Less “let’s have one more,” more “do I actually want this today?” That moment of hesitation is a barrier in itself.
On the other hand, there’s an opportunity. Those who still drink today often do so more deliberately: less for the buzz, more for quality and meaning. That’s a space where wine, as a cultural product, has historically been strong: origin, story, the table, gastronomy, a shared moment. But that strength doesn’t surface automatically. You have to make it visible, without soundingmoralising.
So the question isn’t: “how do we fight health trends?”
But: how do we ensure wine still has a place in the conscious moment? Less frequent, perhaps, but better chosen, better served, and better explained in a way that invites rather than intimidates.
Ready-to-drink (RTD) and pre-mixed drinks: are we underestimating the moment?
In the podcast, this debate often points to the growth of RTDs in cans and bottles, including cannabis variants. In Europe, that last part is different because of regulation and availability, but the underlying point still stands: ready-to-drinks and premixes are on the rise. They’re winning because they serve consumers well: fast, portable, predictable, and with minimal decision fatigue.
Across Europe, you can see this very clearly:
- Premixed cocktails and spritz variants (often lower in alcohol) are growing, especially on terraces and in summer settings.
- Single-serve is becoming mainstream: one can or bottle, no corkscrew, no glasses, no leftovers.
- And above all: packaging works as a signal: fresh, fun, clear, low barrier to entry. You know in advance what you’ll get and the mood it’s meant for.
Wine is trying to show up in those moments too: cans, smaller formats, spritz-like products, pét-nats, lightly sparkling styles. But it often still feels half-hearted, as if it’s somehow embarrassing to be convenient. While convenience is exactly where many consumers make choices today, especially outside the dinner-table context.
Where is your comfort zone? Price segment and place of purchase
We’ve already talked about price perception, health, and “the moment.” But before drawing big conclusions, I want to put one thing into focus: in what price range do wine drinkers actually buy in today? Not what we’d like, not what the trade would like to believe, but what really ends up in the basket.
Because price is rarely a standalone factor. The price you pay is linked to the occasion (weekday vs celebration), to how confident you feel in your choice, and to where you buy. A supermarket bottle often follows different “expectation set” than a bottle from a wine shop. And a spontaneous impulse purchase is different again from a bottle you deliberately choose for a dinner.
So here are two short measurements for anyone who (at least occasionally) buys wine. Your answers help make the conversation concrete: the sweet spot of gravity, and how does it differ by sales channel?
Why do you still choose wine?
Two things are clearer now: in what price range wine drinkers usually buy, and where they buy their wine. The next question is just as important: why do you choose wine in a given moment?
Wine is rarely just about thirst. Wine is context: food, atmosphere, company, a pause button on the day, a small reward or sometimes simply “this just fits.” If wine becomes less self-evident, this is the key question: what still draws you to wine?
Expectations: what would you change?
One final question to you as a reader — as a wine lover or an occasional wine drinker:
If you could change one thing about the wine world so that you would choose wine more often, what would it be?
Thank you for your time and for completing the polls. The more responses we collect, the sharper the conclusions — and the more useful the follow-up will be. If you know people who drink alcohol occasionally (or who have started drinking less): please share this with them.
Filed under: Second opinions? | Tagged: Italian wine ambassador, poll, wijn, wijnblog, wijnkennis, wineblog, wineblogger | 1 Comment »
