New research suggests consumers don’t dislike wine but they do not buy into wine’s elitist tropes and complications.
A national survey of 900 U.S. wine consumers from the Wine Market Council and consulting researchers at Material broke down a wide cross section of wine drinker types and generations to help marketers find steps to take to sell wine.
Some of the study’s most surprising findings:
1 Three in ten respondents said they mix wine into cocktails or serve it over ice. Twenty percent mix it with non-alcoholic drinks like soda, juice, or sparkling water, or drink it blended and frozen.
2 Compared to other alcoholic beverages, wine is not showing up in social media feeds that lead to discovery. Wine marketing is not keeping up.
3 Wine branding is comparatively weak with consumers unable to recall which brand they saw content for.
4 Consumers dislike showing wine pairings with fine dining: “just give us the everyday pairing ideas (burgers, taco, pizza, etc.)”
An Image Problem? Not Exactly
Presenting the findings in a members’ webinar, Wine Market Council president Michelle Egan framed the core insight up front: consumers already see wine as welcoming, approachable, fun, and enjoyable. Those are real strengths.
The catch is that wine also remains tightly bound to tradition, older generations, and special occasions.
The opportunity is to broaden the invitation — helping consumers picture wine in the moments they’re already enjoying, and making it easier to discover, choose, and try.
How the Study Was Constructed
The research is the second phase of a broader WMC project.
Phase two validated cultural signals with hard numbers: a survey of 900 U.S. alcohol consumers, split evenly across Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X+, and further divided into core wine drinkers, marginal drinkers, and non-adopters — 100 respondents in each combination of generation and consumption tier.
Consumers aren’t asking for more wine education-they’re asking for wine to feel simpler, more approachable, and easier to try.
Four Key Takeaways
Material’s Caroline Heizee walked through four themes that anchor the report:
1 Relevance, not reputation, is the real barrier. Wine is already perceived positively; it just isn’t associated with enough everyday occasions.
2 Engagement changes what wine “is” to a consumer. Core drinkers see wine fitting almost anywhere — relaxing at home, hanging out with friends, traveling — while non-adopters keep it confined to formal, special-occasion use.
3 Wine needs to show up differently to stay part of the conversation. It has lower visibility than other alcohol categories across major media, and discovery paths vary sharply by generation.
4 Consumers want confidence, not more education. They’re asking for practical inspiration — food pairings, clear labels, simple selection tips — not deeper wine knowledge.
Breaking the Rules on Purpose
One of the more striking findings involves how people are actually drinking wine.
While most consumption is still straightforward — wine on its own, with or without a meal — three in ten respondents said they mix wine into cocktails or serve it over ice, and 20% mix it with non-alcoholic drinks like soda, juice, or sparkling water, or drink it blended and frozen.
Even among core wine drinkers, three-quarters reported drinking wine in a non-traditional way at least some of the time.
Younger consumers are driving much of this experimentation, but classic serving styles remain prominent across every generation. The takeaway for marketers isn’t to abandon the traditional wine occasion — it’s to normalize the non-traditional ones alongside it, so consumers don’t feel embarrassed serving wine “incorrectly.”
The Discovery Gap | Why Is Wine Sort of Silent on Social Media?
When it comes to media visibility, wine shows up far less than other alcoholic beverages across platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and TV — and there’s no single channel where wine outperforms alcohol overall. Importantly, Material’s researchers argue this isn’t because wine content feels intimidating or overly academic; it’s that wine simply isn’t showing up in people’s feeds often enough.
Generational patterns diverge from there:
• Gen Z discovers wine primarily through social platforms and responds to short-form, relatable content.
• Millennials have the broadest media footprint, blending social discovery with more traditional sources — and content needs to both inspire and inform them.
• Gen X leans on established sources: food, wine, and lifestyle websites, plus retailer and producer sites.
• Non-adopters are the least plugged into wine media specifically, meaning broader lifestyle content — not wine-specific outlets — is the more effective entry point.
Notably, most consumers who encounter wine content on social media can’t name the specific creator or account behind it. Discovery is happening, but it’s passive — which points to a need for clearer next steps (learn more, find where to buy, save for later) rather than more content alone.
What Consumers Are Asking For
Open-ended survey responses reinforced the data. Consumers described wanting wine marketing that reflects everyday life rather than fine dining, plain-language explanations of terms like “dry,” pairings with street food and home cooking instead of just cheese boards, and more low-commitment ways to sample wine — such as variety packs and tasting events — before buying a full bottle.
Guided tastings, variety packs, and at-home relaxing occasions emerged as nearly universal points of interest across every generation and consumption tier — notably including Gen Z non-adopters, who turned out to be the most open non-adopter segment in the study.
Turning Insight Into Action
Material closed with several concrete ideas for wineries and marketers, including:
• Everyday pairing content — short-form video pairing wine with pizza, burgers, or takeout rather than formal cuisine
• “Wine Works Here” campaigns — positioning wine for movie nights, game nights, and casual at-home occasions
• Modern serve content — spritzers, sangria, and other non-traditional formats, paired with messaging that there’s “no wrong way to wine”
• A shop-learn-save content framework — ensuring every post gives consumers a clear, low-friction next step
The Bigger Picture
During the Q&A, Material’s team pushed back gently on the narrative that people are simply “drinking less.” Rather, they argued, consumers — especially younger ones — are drinking differently: diluting wine to avoid overconsumption [or masking it with flavors they KNOW], favoring smaller formats, and finding new social contexts for a category that still carries real emotional resonance. As one presenter put it, some of what makes wine feel out of step with the moment — its traditions, its formats, its associations — may actually be underused strengths rather than liabilities, if repositioned toward relevance instead of formality.
The full survey report, including generational breakdowns and additional data on packaging formats and AI-assisted wine research (used disproportionately by Millennials, followed by Gen Z), will be distributed to Wine Market Council members alongside a recording of the webinar.New research suggests consumers don’t dislike wine but they do not buy into wine’s elitist tropes and complications.
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