Are younger people rejecting wine?
Do Millennials and Gen Zers, who tend to drink less than did baby boomers, deserve the flak they’re getting from the struggling wine industry?
How can local wineries cultivate a new generation of oenophiles?
The anxiety around young people’s drinking habits came up during a recent panel discussion at Walla Walla Community College’s Institute for Enology & Viticulture, which houses the college’s winemaking program.
Geared toward industry professionals, the event, titled “Designing Next Gen Wine Experiences,” featured students, alumni and others working in wine. It was the first in a four-part series presented by the college and the nonprofit Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance.
“I’d like to apologize to the younger generation because they’ve been called out in a way that no one else has … I know that, when I was 25 or 30, I was not spending $50 on a bottle of wine,” said panelist Toby Turlay, a winemaker at Ducleaux Cellars and an institute alumna. “So to expect that generation to be doing that — and to call them out? I think that’s a huge mistake.”
The 2026 State of the U.S. Wine Industry report by Silicon Valley Bank says, “The older, wine-focused cohort is aging out, and younger adults aren’t replacing them at the same rate.”
At her winery, Turlay said she’s noticed more young people coming in and looking for an experience — to talk with the winemaker, see the vines and learn how the wine is made. That interest isn’t specific to the younger folks, she said, but winemakers need to make them feel included.
Panelists cautioned that it’s important not to have too many barriers to entry — and one of those barriers is, simply, price.
Rebecca Sievers, a student who works in a tasting room, advised the audience, “Don’t do a community event and charge $60 if you want to get in the pockets of the younger generation. We don’t really have $60 to just — whoop! — throw around.”
Student Lillian Perry said, “We can afford a tasting fee; we can’t always afford the bottles, and that can feel alienating, not having an option that makes us feel like we want to come back and spend money there.”
Student Patrick McKibben said that, for his generation, what makes a winery welcoming, rather than intimidating, comes down to basic hospitality — letting them know the winery is glad to see them and has a place for them.
If would-be wine-lovers get hit with a “pretentious vibe” as soon as they enter, “that can really just sour the entire experience because then you’re in a defensive mode as soon as you come in the door,” he said.
After about a quarter century of wine industry growth, demand started to dip around 2019 and wineries suddenly had too much inventory, the 2026 report says. Then came the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, COVID-19 lockdowns led to a small increase in demand for wine. Meanwhile, supply chain disruptions and crop-destroying West Coast wildfires eased oversupply, the report says. Once those anomalies passed, demand continued to decrease.
McKibben said the blame his generation has faced is just the industry seeking an easy explanation for its setbacks.
“Anytime we run into muddy waters after a clear sky, they’re going to find a scapegoat, and I feel like Gen Z is that scapegoat … We’re working on finding stability — and financial stability in particular — and we’ll get there eventually.”
And then, he said, his generation will probably buy a ton of wine.
