Winebits 712: Parsing the Gallup drinking survey

This week’s wine news: Delving into the details of Gallup’s 2021 drinking survey, since there’s more to the study than the fact we’re not falling down drunk

• Where are the young people? The Gallup poll confirmed what we’ve seen elsewhere — younger consumers are turning away from wine. Just 22 percent of those 18 to 34 say wine is their drink of choice, and only 28 percent of those 35 to 54 picked wine over been and spirits. That the second group’s number is so low, given that it’s mostly Gen X, speaks to the size of wine’s generation gap.

• Where are the men? This bit was stunning — only 15 percent of men said wine was their preferred beverage. In fact, more men preferred beer (54 percent) and spirits (28 percent). The 15 percent flies in the face of most of wine’s marketing, elitism, and $100 labels. There’s always been a sense women bought more wine, but that men were more discriminating wine buyers, spent more money, and were better worth pursuing. So good luck reaching that 15 percent.

• Thank you, premiumization: The Wine Curmudgeon has ranted long and often about the evils of premiumization, and here’s one more statistic that bears that out. In 2005, Gallup reported that 39 percent of us preferred wine to beer, about the only time in the past 30 years wine has been more popular. Fast forward to 2021, after more than a decade of premiumization, and beer is back on top at 39 percent, and wine is barely holding off spirits, 31-27.

Photo: Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash