Why wine isn’t disappearing—we’re simply changing the way we drink it.
For generations, wine came with a fairly well-established set of rules. Red wine belonged with meat, white wine with fish, Champagne with celebrations, and cocktails were generally reserved for the beginning of the evening. There were rules about glassware, serving temperature, food pairings, vintages and even the proper way to talk about what was in your glass.
Some of those rules were useful. Others were little more than tradition dressed up as law.
Today, consumers are quietly rewriting the rulebook.
That doesn’t necessarily mean people are abandoning wine or spirits. In many cases, they’re becoming more selective about how, when and why they drink. They’re exploring smaller formats, wine cocktails, ready-to-drink beverages and no- and low-alcohol alternatives while continuing to seek out premium wines and spirits for the occasions that matter to them. The result is not so much the decline of drinking as the personalization of it.
From my perspective as a sommelier—and from years spent working in marketing and understanding why consumers make the choices they do—that distinction is particularly interesting.
Because the beverage industry has traditionally organized itself around categories.
Consumers increasingly organize themselves around occasions.
The End of “You’re Supposed to Like This”
Wine has always had an interesting relationship with authority. Scores, medals, famous producers, prestigious regions and celebrated vintages all help us understand quality and provenance. They give consumers a vocabulary for navigating an enormous and sometimes intimidating world.
But somewhere along the way, information occasionally became intimidation.
A person can be made to feel that they don’t understand wine simply because they don’t enjoy Cabernet Sauvignon, don’t know the difference between Barolo and Barbaresco, or would rather have a $20 bottle than a $200 one.
That’s changing.
Today’s wine consumer is increasingly comfortable asking a much simpler question: Do I like it?
That doesn’t make expertise irrelevant. Quite the opposite. A good sommelier can help someone discover why they enjoy something, introduce them to a grape or region they have never encountered, or suggest a bottle that will make a particular meal better. Knowledge should open doors, not put up barriers.
Wine is more enjoyable when curiosity replaces intimidation.
Wine Doesn’t Have to Be Serious All the Time
Wine can be serious. Some wines deserve contemplation, discussion and perhaps a little reverence. A great Burgundy, Barolo or vintage Champagne can provide an extraordinary sensory experience and tell us something about its place of origin, its producer and its history.
But wine can also simply be fun.
That may be one reason wine cocktails are attracting renewed attention. Wine already brings acidity, fruit, aromatics and texture to a drink, so adding citrus, botanicals, bitters, vermouth, soda or fresh fruit isn’t really an assault on wine culture. It’s another way of experiencing it.
The same applies to wines that don’t fit neatly into traditional categories. Pét-nat, orange wine, chilled reds and unconventional blends have found enthusiastic audiences precisely because they offer something different.
The interesting part isn’t whether these styles conform to traditional wine culture.
It’s that people are discovering them without particularly caring whether they do.
Smaller Bottles, Different Habits
The 750ml bottle has been the standard for so long that we rarely stop to consider what it assumes: that you want approximately five glasses of the same wine and that you intend to drink them within a reasonable period of time.
That’s not necessarily how people live anymore.
Smaller bottles, cans, single-serve formats and other alternatives give consumers the ability to match the amount of wine to the occasion. A half bottle can make sense for two people having dinner. A single serve can be perfect for someone cooking at home. A smaller format can also make it easier to experiment with a wine without committing to an entire bottle.
From a marketing perspective, this is an obvious opportunity. Reducing the commitment makes it easier for a consumer to try something unfamiliar.
From a wine perspective, it simply gives us more reasons to open something interesting.
Moderation Is Becoming Part of the Experience
Perhaps the most significant change is the growing space between drinking and not drinking.
The conversation around alcohol is becoming less binary. Someone might enjoy a glass of Champagne at dinner and choose a non-alcoholic cocktail the following evening. They might explore a lower-alcohol wine at lunch and order a full-bodied red with dinner. They may simply decide that some occasions call for alcohol and others don’t.
That doesn’t necessarily diminish the drinking experience. It can actually make the occasion more intentional.
The no- and low-alcohol category is particularly interesting because consumers are increasingly asking the same questions of these beverages that they ask of wine and spirits: Does it taste good? Does it have complexity? Does it work with food? Is it worth drinking even when alcohol isn’t part of the equation?
That is a much higher bar than simply creating an alternative for someone who doesn’t want alcohol.
And it is probably a healthy one for the industry.
The Occasion Is the New Category
This may be the biggest lesson for anyone trying to understand today’s beverage consumer.
People don’t necessarily decide what to drink based on a permanent preference for one category. They decide based on what they’re doing.
A bottle of wine for an anniversary dinner is different from a bottle opened while grilling on a Saturday afternoon. A cocktail before dinner serves a different purpose than a glass of wine with the meal. A sparkling wine at brunch occupies an entirely different space from the Cabernet someone has been saving for a special steak.
The person making all of those choices can be the same person.
That’s why traditional demographic thinking doesn’t always explain beverage behavior very well. The same consumer can be adventurous one night, traditional the next and alcohol-free the night after that.
The occasion changes.
So does the glass.
Tradition Still Matters
None of this means that the old rules are irrelevant.
Understanding tradition is part of understanding wine. Knowing why Champagne is made the way it is, why certain grapes thrive in particular regions or why serving temperature changes the perception of a wine gives us a deeper appreciation for what’s in the glass.
But tradition should be a starting point rather than a restriction.
If you want to put ice in your rosé on a hot afternoon, go ahead. If you prefer your red wine slightly chilled, there’s no sommelier emergency hotline you need to call. If a particular wine tastes better to you in a tumbler than a Burgundy glass, that’s useful information about your experience of the wine.
The rules are there to help us understand the beverage.
They aren’t there to prevent us from enjoying it.
The Story Is Becoming More Important Than the Status
Wine has long been marketed through prestige. Famous names, famous vineyards, high scores and celebrated vintages have enormous influence, and rightly so when they represent genuine quality.
But consumers are increasingly interested in the story behind the bottle as well.
Who made it? Where did it come from? Why is this grape grown there? What makes this producer different? What does the wine taste like, and what might I want to eat with it?
Those questions create a different kind of value.
A relatively inexpensive bottle with a great story can become the wine everyone remembers from a dinner. Meanwhile, an expensive bottle selected solely because someone told you it was important can occasionally become little more than an expensive bottle.
Wine has always been remarkably good at creating conversation.
Perhaps we’re simply becoming more interested in what the conversation is about.
So, Are We Drinking Less?
That’s probably the wrong question.
A more interesting question is whether we’re becoming more intentional about drinking.
The evidence suggests that the beverage landscape is becoming more diverse rather than simply smaller. Wine cocktails, smaller formats, ready-to-drink products and no- and low-alcohol beverages are expanding the ways consumers can participate, while traditional wine and spirits remain important for consumers who value them. The industry is responding not by replacing the old world, but by adding more choices to it.
And that may ultimately be the most important change.
For a long time, beverage marketing tried to tell consumers what a particular product meant. This was a wine for sophisticated people. This was a spirit for adventurous people. This was the bottle you bought for a celebration.
Today, consumers seem increasingly willing to decide that meaning for themselves.
That’s a significant shift.
Wine was never really just about alcohol. At its best, it is about place, food, people, conversation, celebration and memory. The bottle is simply how those things arrive at the table.
So perhaps the new rules aren’t really about drinking more or drinking less. They’re about having more freedom to decide what belongs in your glass, and when.
Know the traditions. Understand the reasons behind them. Learn enough to appreciate the difference between convention and quality.
Then make your own choice.
After all, the best wine rule may be the one that has always mattered most:
Drink what you enjoy, with the people you enjoy, in the moments worth remembering 🍷
Cover Photo by John Lines on Pexels.com
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