Wine trends 2023

Look for wine in the new year that is dumber, sweeter, and less interesting — because demographics

This is the second of two parts looking at wine prices and wine trends in 2022. Today, Part II: Wine trends 2023. Friday, Part I: Wine prices 2023.

The Wine Curmudgeon has a cyber-folder called “Gloom and Despair, ” which is full of e-mails and links forecasting the horrors that are in store for the wine business in 2023. Just one example: “Wine business needs to reach out to new consumers as core drinkers’ ranks dwindle, expert says:

Which, of course, we know the wine business has no intention of doing.

Which also makes it difficult for me to write the 2023 trends post without sounding like a character in Albert Camus’ “The Plague,” the blog’s official existential novel. So, with that in mind, here are my thoughts about what we’ll see in wine this year.

• The dumbing down of wine continues, as medium-sized producers follow the lead of Big Wine and make wine that doesn’t taste like wine. Rather, the goal will be to meet some sort of perceived demographic demand. This means sweet varietal red wine, like the two sweet cabernet sauvignons that made me gag in the dump bucket, as well as smoooth whites like chardonnay. One recent sample was all about extensive winemaking that had taken out most of the chardonnay character and replaced it with some sort of bland, soft, sort of fruity anti-flavor.

• A continuing decline in alcohol consumption, as more consumers drink less. I think last year’s term – “mindful drinking” – still fits; it’s not so much that people will stop drinking, but more of us will drink less when we do drink, and there will be fewer of what the analysts call “drinking occasions.”

• Fewer drinking occasions means more bad news for restaurant wine, which has still not recovered from the pandemic. Many of the items in the “Gloom and Despair” file are about restaurants – more closings, depressed business, and reduced operating hours because it doesn’t pay to stay open longer. Ironically, restaurant wine prices will increase, a process that has already started (“Gloom and Despair” file). No, I don’t know why, either.

• More neo-Prohibitionist foolishness, aided and abetted by the mainstream news media and faux scientific studies. We’ll see more tell-alls from “Mommy drunks,” as well as cherry-picked statistics that claim more of us than ever are falling down drunk each night. Which — and how many times do I have to repeat this — isn’t possible when consumption is decreasing. The saddest part about the Neos? Alcoholism remains a serious problem, but none of this – aimed at moderate drinkers – will do anything to help solve that problem.

Photo: “21st century robots. Seen from the future, they will just look cute.” by www.ralfsteinberger.com is licensed under CC BY 2.0.