T rade magazines and social media are full of stories predicting the demise of wine . They point to figures showing production at its lowest level since 1961. Vineyards in Bordeaux and Rioja are being grubbed up as producers are unable to sell their wine. The process is hastened by a globa drop in consumption.
Red wine seems to be hardest hit by the slump. This is partly down to changes in the way we drink wine. Traditionally, red wine was seen as something to enjoy sitting down with a plate of food. But many consumers today prefer to enjoy wine by itself in a pub, a wine bar or at home. So, while white wine sales are doing okay, and sparkling wine is increasing, the figures for red wine are falling. Even with dinner, many now prefer to drink cocktails before and during meals, and a large group of younger consumers don’t drink alcohol of any kind.
For a long period, the wine trade here and abroad assumed wine consumption would increase every year – with new markets opening up in China, India and the former Soviet bloc. In Ireland, wine consumption showed double-digit increases almost every year throughout the late 1980s and 1990s. We were really only catching up with most of the rest of the world, and we still drink far less than most of our European neighbours. Many assumed the boom would go on forever, and the latest Irish figures do in fact show a very small increase in wine sales at the expense of beer.
The biggest drop in sales has been elsewhere around the world. Whereas wine is seen as a sophisticated drink in Ireland, the opposite is the case in producer countries such as Spain and France . Younger consumers there see wine as something their parents drank and therefore boring rather than aspirational. Wine sales have been plummeting for years in these markets.
The wine trade hasn’t really helped itself. Wine has always been complicated, with a nomenclature that is difficult for new consumers to master. All of those different regions, grape varieties, the impenetrable language of terroirs, vintages, those long wine lists in restaurants and all those ridiculous tasting notes; just to buy a drink! Little wonder that consumers moved elsewhere.
So, should producers be concerned? All is not lost. Consumers are buying less wine but switching from entry-level to more expensive premium wines. There are vast swathes of vineyards that may have been planted in unsuitable areas where the vines need irrigation or where it may become too hot to grow grapes due to climate change . The future for these producers looks grim. But other cooler regions will thrive.
It seems likely that there will always be room for quality wine; it isn’t disappearing, it is just being redefined by a new generation of drinkers.