The wine industry is taking note of the "Millennial" drinkers: the youngest drinkers above the drinking age, who are drinking more wine than any other generation when they turned 21, Fox Business reported.
Ronan Stafford, a Canadean Wine Report analyst, told Fox that millennials above the drinking age in 2012 drank almost 26 percent of wine by volume in the United States.
This amount surpasses the global average of 20 percent but is still less than the 41 percent of wine drinkers who are 55 and older, according to Fox.
"Millennials are storming the wine market and they want adventure and demand. more transparency and authenticity from winemakers," Rowan Gormley, CEO of Naked Wines told FOX. Gormley estimates that one-third of his customers are of this generation.
In the past, wine has been mostly marketed to older generations who have more money to spend then the younger generation, and it came "with a huge pretense, according to FOX.
"Presenting a bottle of wine at a party to show off how much you paid for it only happens among older drinkers," Gormley told FOX. "Younger drinkers are picking wines based on the story behind it, how they found it, what unique blend or region it comes from."
A big difference when getting young drinkers to choose their bottles is the price. The millennial generation doesn't have deep pockets like the older wine drinkers, and the medium price range is $20 when millennial drinkers are choosing their wine, FOX reported.
"Companies targeting millennials are going to have to face their declining purchasing power, compared to the more financially secure consumers in older age groups," Stafford told FOX.
Melissa Saunders, owner of wine importer Communal Brands, said that "this generation is blowing all of that out of the water. They don't care about the pretentiousness of a wine, they want something that is authentic and speaks to them. This is a huge marketing opportunity," FOX reported.
According to FOX, wine distributors are seeing more demand from the millennial group and are hoping to attract and maintain them as their demographics change as they age.
In order to do this, wine companies are changing the way they produce and market their wine, as well as how they are connecting with their customers.
Saunders told FOX the market for older and stuffier wines that are popular among the older wine drinkers is fading, and that "there is a new era coming for wine."
The spike in wine drinking from the millennial generation can be attributed to technology and the Internet, FOX reported. Such technological advances have led the Millennial generation to discover and learn about wine without visiting Napa Valley.
"You no longer need to be in Napa Valley to learn about specific grapes or blends; now consumers all over the world can have a relationship with winemakers, drinkers and distributors," Gormley told FOX.
