Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/705606
w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m J u l y - A u g 2 016 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 2 1 w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m that millennials were drinking more wine than baby boomers made good headline fod- der. "Millennials Top U.S. in Wine Consump- tion," CBS trumpeted. The San Francisco Chronicle and Fortune magazine also report- ed on this generational consumption shift. hen the Wine Market Council made its annual wine consumer survey presentation in New York City in Janu- ary of this year, there was one slide in the presentation that made the hair on Rob McMillan's neck stand up. Based on its frequent wine consumer survey responses, the Wine Market Coun- cil had concluded that millennials had just surpassed baby boomers as America's greatest consumers of wine by volume and now accounted for 42% of total U.S. wine sales. The Wine Market Council also reported that millennials were consuming 160 million cases compared to 114 million cases consumed by baby boomers. To McMillan, the founder of Silicon Val- ley Bank's (SVB) wine division, that num- ber seemed preposterous. His own bank's research, as well as reports by others, recently estimated millennial consump- tion at closer to half that number, nearer to 20% of total U.S. wine consumption. But with the last of the large millennial "cohorts" or age groups having recently reached drinking age, the announcement MARKET WATCH TIM TEICHGRAEBER + In January, the Wine Market Council released findings claiming millennials had surpassed baby boomers in total U.S. wine consumption, but those findings have since been retracted. + Millennials are now adults and may account for as much as 36% of the total wine-consuming public. + Baby boomers are still the largest demographic of frequent wine drinkers. + While millennials will undoubtedly play a huge role in fine wine consumption in the future, Generation X is currently the second- greatest consumer of fine wine in the United States. AT A GLANCE Who's Really Drinking the Most Wine? Silicon Valley Bank calls shenanigans on Wine Market Council's millennial consumption findings.