Young Italians are turning away from wine, and the industry is failing to connect with them.
Those under 24 years of age make up only 6.5% of wine consumers in Italy, compared to 30% of those over 65.
Analysis of Istat data, processed by the Wine Observatory of the Unione Italiana Vini, reveals a consumption pattern in which young people participate only marginally. Consumers under 24 years of age represent just 6.5% of the total, compared to 30% for those over 65.
According to the analysis, the disaffection stems from the sector's difficulty in innovating in communication. This is illustrated by an event aimed at 18- to 20-year-old final-year hospitality students, featuring two tastings: one of wine and the other of cocktails.
The wine tasting, led by one of Italy's leading experts, followed the classic canons of professional tasting, with lengthy descriptions of soils, climates, winemaking techniques, and aging processes. More than half the students left the room, and only a small number remained attentive. The cocktail tasting, shorter, simpler, and more concise, kept them engrossed in their seats.
The comparison links two products that have little in common besides alcohol, but wine possesses more complex values and characteristics, beginning with its terroir. Many spirits have also enriched their range of values. The fear among wine communicators of trivializing its content is understandable, but the result is communication that rarely manages to be inclusive and capable of engaging the numerous non-experts.
Anyone who's ever stepped into a cocktail bar has experienced the thrill of becoming a mixologist in a matter of minutes, and young people shy away from anything that intimidates them. Most of the industry's innovation boils down to changing a label, a change that often takes months, if not years. The debate surrounding non-alcoholic wines seems symptomatic of an industry that fears the new. Tradition is valuable, but when it becomes boring, elitist, or an inability to accept reality, it ceases to be so.
The National Meeting of Alpini in Vicenza offered a counterexample. The wine from the renowned Vitevis cooperative in Vicenza was a magnificent example of "wine democracy," without any snobbery: a product for everyone, in a city that welcomed many young Alpini.
