The first wine conference speech I ever gave was titled “How to Sell Wine to Millennials,” and more than ten years later I’m still hearing the same question in conference rooms, only now it’s about Gen Z.
I gave the same answer then that I give now: stop trying to sell to a generation, and get to know the people who actually buy your wine. It’s why I started teaching wineries to build personas all those years ago, and why in 2016 I developed Winestories™, personas written as the stories of real people rather than age brackets and bar charts.
When a winery asks me how to sell to Gen Z today, the question underneath is usually “our customers are getting older, and the younger buyers can’t find us.” That’s a real and serious problem, but it isn’t a generational one.
TL;DR: Younger adults aren’t abandoning wine, but they are drinking differently, and their age tells you less about them than you’d think. Start with the customers you already have and why they buy. Then earn trust the way younger buyers give it: through people they know, and proof they can see.
Why is “how do I sell wine to Gen Z” the wrong question?
In 2023, even Pew Research Center, one of the best-known users of the generational labels, conceded that “there is great diversity of thought, experience and behavior within generations,” and said it would only talk about generations “when it adds value” (Pew Research Center, 2023). A birth year, in other words, tells you very little about what someone will buy.
Gallup’s 2026 poll shows the same thing in wine, where the gap between women and men who prefer wine (45% against 15%) is far wider than the gap between young and old (Gallup, 2026). And when SVB looked at what has actually moved the needle on wine consumption, it pointed to life stages: “the point people move into their careers, buy a home, and have children” (SVB, 2026).
Picture two 28-year-olds on your mailing list. One has just been promoted and has started hosting dinner parties; the other shares an apartment and is saving for a down payment. The first probably has more in common with your best 55-year-old customer than with the second, so a campaign aimed at “Gen Z” speaks to both of them badly, while one aimed at the dinner-party host reaches her whatever year she was born.
I made the full case in Beyond Demographics, and nothing since has changed my mind: a strategy built around age is out of date before it starts.
Who do younger wine buyers trust?
I spent 32 pages on this question in Beyond Heritage, a free report from my Wine Culture Lab, because it’s the one I’d rather wineries were asking. The answer is uncomfortable for an industry built on legacy: heritage, appellation and medals no longer earn much attention from people under 35, let alone their trust. They decide who and what to believe through “peers, creators, proximate experts, and visible proof that claims are real,” and every one of those is something a winery can work with.
Peers. When a group of women in Utah who ran a shopping blog called The Buy Guide started gifting Stanley’s Quencher cup to friends and recommending it to their followers, the cup took off (CNBC, 2023). A friend saying “you have to try this” is still the most powerful recommendation there is, and wine works the same way, so give your happiest customers something to pass on and a reason to bring a friend next time.
Creators and proximate experts. The bartender at the neighborhood wine bar, the person at the wine shop who always knows, and the creator with a few thousand followers who actually drinks what she posts about are all closer to your future customers than any critic, and far more likely to answer your email. That’s what proximate means, and it’s why a 95-point score, lovely as it looks on a shelf talker, isn’t doing the work it used to.
Visible proof. A photo of the cover crop between your rows, a plain list of what’s in the bottle and a straight answer to “how much is a tasting?” will do more than “sustainable” on a label ever could, because younger buyers check, and a claim they can’t check reads as no claim at all.
Trust built this way can also go quickly, since younger buyers withdraw it faster than wine is used to. A subscription that’s hard to cancel, or a price that changes at checkout, can undo months of goodwill in one click.
What should your wine sound like, and what should you pour?
95-point scores? Founder backstories full of jargon? Endless vineyard shots with no people in them?
Younger drinkers want to know why your wine matters in their lives: whether it’s easy to drink with friends, good with takeaway, or part of a collab that supports something bigger. Tell those stories in a tone that’s confident, casual and clear, never condescending, because if your brand voice feels like a wine exam, you’ve already lost them.
IWSR credits younger drinkers, and a move to everyday occasions, for the pockets of growth sparkling wine still has in the US, the UK and France (IWSR, 2025), and it sees demand for no- and low-alcohol wine growing with Gen Z and Millennials in the lead. Beyond that, the wines we see catching younger buyers’ attention are the adventurous ones, such as pet-nats, limited drops, discovery boxes and collabs, especially when they come with a clear story about how and where they’re made. Gen Z doesn’t need to be converted to wine; they need wine to meet them where they are.
Tastings that feel like a relaxed afternoon with friends rather than a seminar, and a checkout that’s clear and fast, keep the experience in step with the wine. Winning younger buyers also takes patience: Gen Z isn’t looking for a one-night stand, and the careers, homes and children that SVB links to wine consumption are still ahead for most of them, so the brands that are patient now are the ones they’ll grow with.
Where should a winery start?
Before you spend a dollar chasing a generation, find out who already buys from you and why: their values, their life stage and what they use your wine for. Then look for the people who share those things but haven’t found you yet, whatever their age.
In practice, that means building narrative customer personas from real customer research, then mapping the journey each one takes with you, so you can see exactly where younger buyers drop away.
If you want to go deeper first, Beyond Heritage is free to download. And if your customers are getting older and you want to know who’s next, tell us who your customers are today, or see how it fits into our strategy work.
Frequently asked questions
Is Gen Z drinking less alcohol?
Gallup’s 2026 poll found drinking among US adults aged 18 to 34 has fallen to 50%, down from 58% in 2023, while IWSR found US Gen Z participation rising to 71% and calls the “generation of moderation” story “conclusively debunked” (IWSR, 2026). The answer depends on the measure, but both show moderation spreading across all ages rather than a Gen Z retreat from alcohol.
Is generational marketing dead?
Pew Research Center, one of the best-known users of generational labels, now says there is “great diversity of thought, experience and behavior within generations.” As a way to predict what someone will buy, generational marketing never worked well; values, life stage and what people need wine for tell you far more.
Should wineries focus on Millennials instead of Gen Z?
SVB’s 2026 report sees “hope in the 32–46-year-old alcohol beverage consumers” and names starting a career, buying a home and having children as behaviors that have moved the needle on wine consumption. Those moments will come for Gen Z too, so focus on life stage, not birth year.