Gen Wine

TrendCentral: While young drinkers (21 and up, of course) aren’t dropping cheap beer anytime soon, the trend for more “refined” beverages seems to be going more mass lately, with affordable wines being marketed heavily to older Gen Ys and young Gen Xers. Qualitatively, we’ve already seen the beginning of the “hip” wine market with Sofia Coppola’s mini champagne cans, and young wine drinkers already gravitate towards affordable brands such as Yellow Tail. We’ve yet to really see a wine label aggressively target this demo, but now the category seems to be expanding.
Launched at New York Fashion Week, Virgin Vines is Virgin Group’s latest venture. Hoping to separate their wine from the stereotypically stodgy, sommelier-approved wine culture, Virgin is marketing the wine with the tagline “Unscrew it, let’s do it”. With just two varieties (red Shiraz and white Chardonnay), the screw-top wine brand is hoping to make the wine purchasing process less intimidating to those lacking Sideways-level wine knowledge, while also offering something a few steps up from Boone’s Farm or even Charles Shaw (aka “Two Buck Chuck”).
Young Wine [TrendCentral]