12 May Do the countries that produce the most wine also drink the most wine?
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One of the most frequent habits of University students and young people in general is drinking: it could be a beer after class to relax, a glass of wine during dinner to pair it with the food or super-alcoholics on a night out to have fun. The young generation is said to be drinking more than their parents and this has possibly led the youth to gain a wider knowledge about alcohol. In particular, wine is the top 1 drink chose by them almost on a daily base and this has increased its fame year after year. According to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health women are the ones consuming wine the most, and this is a very interesting fact because while in the past wine has always been considered a men’s drink, now not only women drink it more but they also tend to have improved their knowledge about the whole industry of wine. This generation is in fact able to identify the origin of a certain wine and its quality, but what about the real concept of the wine industry in terms of global production? There are many myths that surround our society and one of the trickiest is the balance between production and consumption around the world, in other words: do the countries that produce the most wine also drink the most wine?
As you probably would have expect Europe occupies the top 3 positions of wine production with Italy at the first step, followed then by France and Spain with almost 4 billions of litres produced per year; unexpectedly Argentina is the one closing the top 5 after America, a country worth to be analysed in detail. The States produce over 2 billion of litres per year and Americans are the number one wine’s consumer with almost 5 litres consumed per person. Here, unlikely elsewhere, the Millennial generation is believed to be one of the driving forces that brought to a 35% growth in wine consumption and they are also the largest consumer group in the history of the US. This generation includes people who were born between the years of 1977 and 2000, with an average of 33 hours spent on the Internet and social media they seek out wine groups on Facebook and other sites.
However even though they seem to be experts they are actually not, many studies proved in fact how in reality when it comes to buying a bottle of wine there are many factors they consider such as: price, shelf position and label. Struggling with their finances they tend to spend less money than their parents and they also tend to be more faithful to specific brands rather than go for diversification every time. Last but no least they seem not to really care about reading labels, finding more important the bottle’s location on the shelves.
Did you identified yourself with these students? Well, hopefully now you’ll be more aware about the wine industry.
Delina Petiros
