French young people increasingly turning away from wine, study finds

The number of regular wine drinkers in France is dropping fast, with barely one in ten still pouring a glass every day, a study published Friday found.

The report, covering wine consumption trends between 2015 and 2022, said only 11 percent of respondents reported drinking wine “every day, or almost every day”.

This was a full five percentage points lower than in the study’s previous edition in 2015, the National Committee of Wine Professions (CNIV) said.

ALSO READ: This is why you get a headache from drinking red wine

In 1980, when the first such survey was held, around half of France’s population drank wine daily, or almost daily.

The study is normally carried out every five years but 2020’s was pushed back to 2022 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The decline in wine drinking comes “in a context of an overall fall in alcohol consumption”, CNIV said in the study compiled by pollsters Ipsos.

“A big majority of people still consume wine, but only occasionally,” it said.

Generational gap

The data pointed to a growing generational gap, with young people increasingly turning away from wine.

“Regular wine drinkers are disappearing because of generational change,” the study said. “Most occasional wine drinkers are young.”

Around 37 percent of French people do not drink wine or drink only on special occasions.

This compares with 19 percent of respondents who said they never drink any alcohol at all, up from 15 percent in 2015.

NOW READ: Global wine production hits lowest level since 1961