BOSTON (AP) 鈥� Which wine pairs well with Shark Week? Does a pinot noir have enough acidity to cut through the grime of a Tough Mudder race? Is a big, brassy cabernet bold enough of a quaff for a night of ?
And is a wine named SEX too provocative or not provocative enough?
Absurd as they may sound, these are the questions grappling with slumping sales and increasingly elusive drinkers. How consumers — — answer them will determine whether an industry long defined by fuddy-duddy pretense can find its footing in 2026 and beyond.
鈥淭hat self-important way that wine can refer to itself 鈥� we鈥檙e really trying to tip that on its head,鈥� said Helen Kurtz, chief of marketing for The Wine Group, which hopes that offerings such as its easy-drinking Cupcake Vineyards wines can attract a generation that came of age on Frappuccinos and gas station BuzzBallz.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about being less serious about ourselves, because that鈥檚 what this consumer is demanding,鈥� she said.
By which she means partnering the company鈥檚 MD 20/20 (yes, it鈥檚 a wine) with World Wrestling Entertainment matches (鈥淢ad Dog Enters the Ring鈥�), and launching the aptly named Fuel by Franzia line of boxed wine beverages for NASCAR (鈥淔ull Throttle Flavor鈥�).
Alcohol consumption has dropped
It鈥檚 a fresh lesson on the importance of finding your customer rather than hoping they find you. Because almost across the board, alcohol consumption is down, a trend that accelerated post-pandemic. A host of factors is at play, including aging Boomers , Gen Z鈥檚 gravitation to , and widening availability of .
Each segment of the alcohol industry — valued at around $560 billion in the U.S. — is responding differently. Hard liquor, for example, has found a rare growth category in ready-to-drink . But the wine industry faces its own constellation of challenges, many of its own making.
For anyone new to wine — particularly much-coveted 20-somethings — finding one鈥檚 way can be daunting, something of a Ch芒teau du Stuffy effect.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e got a bunch of things, what you might call friction points, with wine, that are particularly salient to younger consumers,鈥� including cost and drinkability, said Christian Miller, director of research for the Wine Market Council.
A pretentious image keeps some customers away
Wine, from the labels to the language used to describe it, historically has leaned pricy and pretentious (looking at you, 鈥渘otes of asphalt and barnyard鈥�). Wine trends also have favored boozy and bracing styles, a hard sell for folks used to sipping hard seltzers at the club.
Fewer than a third of Gen-Z households own a corkscrew, according to a trends report by the British household products company Lakeland. Even simply trying a wine comes with a gatekeeper: Hard liquor is easy to sample at a bar or as single-shot nips; most wine requires a full-bottle commitment.
A cadre of wineries has begun pushing the bounds of wine culture by ditching the fussy fa莽ade in favor of a sassy vibe and accessible language. Price matters, too (the sweet spot seems to be the $8 to $20 a bottle range), but not nearly so much as the message.
It’s about using contemporary communication to pitch “something that鈥檚 been made for centuries,鈥� said Charles Smith, founder of House of Smith, the company behind younger, shopper-friendly brands such as Kung Fu Girl Riesling and SEX Ros茅. 鈥淢y mantra is always to communicate the language of wine to everyone because not everyone speaks wine. The wine should be a reflection of the consumer who is going to buy it.鈥�
Can tie-ins to pop culture make wine more relatable?
Bogle Family Wine Collection has leaned in with its Juggernaut Wines. Adorned with almost graphically violent labels showcasing alpha predators — a shark, a grizzly, an orca, a lion and some sort of particularly angry bird of prey — the bottles are a far cry from the placid villas and languorous ladies plastered across so many wines.
The other side of it is getting those bottles into spaces not traditionally associated with wine, said Jessica LaBounty, the company鈥檚 marketing director. For two years, Juggernaut has announced 鈥淎dventure awaits鈥� as it sponsored the grueling Tough Mudder races. They鈥檝e also done placements at zoos that host nights where people can name dead rodents and insects after former partners and feed them to the animals. Cheers鈥�?
And this year, it鈥檚 Discovery network鈥檚 Juggernaut’s chardonnay label sports an especially snappish great white and 鈥渏ust the right amount of bite.鈥�
鈥淭he viewer base of Shark Week lines up really, really nicely with who we know our consumer to be,” LaBounty said. “It鈥檚 another way to meet them where they are already versus kind of asking them to come to us.鈥�
Learning to speak Gen Z is key
The goal is to bridge a generational divide in which wine got lost. Younger drinkers don鈥檛 and won鈥檛 talk about wine the way older drinkers do. To point, there’s a clever social media meme about a Millennial marketing team pitching wine vs. a Gen-Z social media team. The Millennial effort goes on at length about terroir and full-bodied flavors. Gen-Z鈥檚 pitch? 鈥渋t鈥檚 giving鈥� yummy鈥�.
Vibe is everything for Bread & Butter Wines, with the tagline, 鈥淒on鈥檛 overthink it.鈥� As in, pair their red blend with a candy charcuterie board. Or their pinot noir with a Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich. Want fries with that? Try their prosecco.
鈥淭he No. 1 goal is to disrupt the shelf because it is so crowded,鈥� said Caitlin Ward, brand and digital marketing director. 鈥淪assiness is a way to do that.鈥�
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J.M. Hirsch is a longtime food writer who was food editor of The Associated Press for nearly a decade until 2016.
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