American wine industry observers who imagine that the slowdown in the consumption of alcohol in general, and wine in particular, is a phenomenon related to young people in their market, should look at the latest data from France.
As the French broadcaster Europe 1 revealed on January 3, alcohol consumption in France has fallen by 20% over the last 15 years. When one compares the four years 2019-2023, with 2007-2011, wine's share of this total also dropped from 58% to 40%. Its place was largely taken by beer whose share rose over the same period by 16%.
This trend has also been noted by Mathieu Carpentier, of specialist consumer consultancy Circana, who points out that still wine's share of total alcohol consumption fell during and since the pandemic, from 34.4% 2019 to just 31.5% in 2023. Beers and mixed drinks now represent 50.3%, a figure Carpentier expects to see grow further this year, thanks to the rise in microbreweries, beer's greater variety and lower alcohol content and prices.
