It is 1999 and I’m breakdancing badly in a French Discotheque at 4am. That’s real. There is proof.
The photograph is off-center, over exposed, and out-of-focus. I’m trying - and failing - to spin on my head. It is super embarrassing and yet today it makes me chuckle whenever I think about it.
I wish I had a copy of the picture, but I don’t. The photograph when I saw it was a 4x6 print from the local drugstore. I don’t believe it was ever scanned. Probably, that’s for the best.
Yet as I consider this moment, I find a perspective about one of the greatest challenges facing the American Wine Business today.
The State of the US Wine Industry 2020 Report by Rob McMillan came out. This important report has been ringing the panic bell about the slow pace of wine consumption among Millennials.
“The issue of greatest concern for the wine business today is the lack of participation in the premium wine category by the large millennial generation … There are growing distractions for the young consumer, such as health messaging, cannabis, energy drinks, spiked seltzers, and health-directed beverages like kombucha.”
While all of the above are true, there is another part of this story that I don’t see included the conversation.
This is the generation that grew up with all their foibles and indiscretions archived on the internet. Every bad joke that was a little off color. Every ‘slutty’ text or photo they send. Every unguarded moment that was captured on phone video by a digital bully or an ex-friend.
That lasts forever online now.
Worse, it can go viral and destroy your life.
My awkward attempt to breakdance in 1999 was inspired by a few too many TGVs - a neon green cocktail named for France’s high speed train system. I didn’t know anyone was photographing. I was just trying to dance. Badly.
There was never the risk to me of the video ‘going viral’ and suddenly thousands - or millions - of people are watching. Mocking me. Forever.
That is a digital “Big Brother” that millennials have lived with for their entire lives and in adulthood it appears to be driving sober curious and neo-temperance movements.
I love wine. I love it for the aesthetics, the flavors, the connection to travel and food, and the friendships I’ve built around it.
I don’t love wine because it lets me breakdance at 4am.
Wine isn’t the same at tequila shots, six-packs of cheap beer, or event a TGV cocktail.
The wine industry has fallen down on presenting wine in its proper context of moderate food-centric consumption.
We’ve allowed the online narrative to be driven by memes of Gen Z “wine moms” and a humorous culture of excessive drinking. We’ve allowed a generation of chef’s to feel comfortable ignoring wine-at-food pairing.
At the worst, we’ve let wine become lumped in with all of alcohol and fallen victim to the paid-for-science promotes zero consumption.
If we do not do a better job of marketing wine as something that improves your life, your food, and your relationships, we run a real risk that younger generations will reject something quite wonderful.
And that would be more embarrassing than breakdancing badly in a French Discotheque.