Traditionally, we tend to think of alcohol consumers as ‘beer drinkers’, ‘wine drinkers’, ‘whisky drinkers’ etc. However, there is an increasing trend, particularly among younger cohorts, to select a different drink according to the occasion (like they would with an outfit).
Consumer research from market research company Growth Scope, based on an analysis of the consumption occasion, provides a new lens for understanding the drivers of wine consumption in Australia including: who drinks wine, what (types of wine) do they drink, when, how much, where, and why. This market bulletin focuses on the ‘why’ of wine consumption and compares it with all other alcohol.
People drink wine on intimate social occasions
Looking at over 10,000 consumption occasions where wine was the choice of drink, 40 per cent of the occasions included the person’s partner, and 38 per cent of the occasions only featured one other person – suggesting a strong overlap. By contrast, for all other types of alcohol (combined), the occasion was more likely to be based around friends (36 per cent of occasions compared with 27 per cent for wine) and less likely to be focused on a partner (32 per cent compared with 40 per cent). Only 17 per cent of wine consumption occasions were alone, compared with 21 per cent of all other alcohol consumption occasions (see Figure 1 and Figure 2).
Figure 1 - Wine consumption occasions by the number of people present
Source: Growth Scope 2024
Figure 2 - Wine consumption occasions by the main person or people present
Source: Growth Scope 2024
People drink wine with food
This is not a new or surprising finding. However, the Growth Scope research clearly shows just how much wine consumption occasions are tied to eating a main meal, with this being the most popular reason for a wine consumption occasion, chosen on 36 per cent of all wine consumption occasions recorded since the beginning of 2023. By contrast, eating a main meal is only chosen as a reason on 18 per cent of other alcohol occasions (Figure 3).
Figure 3 - Top 10 reasons for alcohol consumption occasions – wine vs other alcohol
Source: Growth Scope
Delving more deeply into the motivations for wine consumption occasions, Growth Scope classifies emotional and functional needs for each occasion. In the case of wine occasions, the top three functional needs correspond with the food-driven reason for consumption: focused around taste, going well with food and ‘something to savour or enjoy’. By contrast, in the case of beer, the functional needs are quite different, with a lower emphasis on combining food and savouring, and a greater emphasis on being ‘easy drinking’ and popular with the group (Figure 4).
Figure 4 - Top 10 functional needs for wine and beer consumption occasions
Wine appeals more to older consumers
Wine consumers are likely to be older on average than other alcohol consumers. Growth Scope data shows that, of those who chose wine on their most recent consumption occasion, 55 per cent were over 50 (compared with 39 per cent for other alcohol categories) – see Figure 5.
Figure 5 - Age profile of wine consumers vs other alcohol consumers (based on most recent alcohol consumption occasion)
Source: Growth Scope 2024
Looking at the emotional needs across all alcohol occasions for those aged 50 – 69, ‘relax and unwind’ over-indexes for this age group (53 per cent nominating it as a reason) compared with all consumers (43 per cent) and all wine drinkers (44 per cent). Most of the top 10 emotional needs are related to feeling relaxed and discerning.
Conversely, consumers aged between 25-39 across all alcohol occasions are much less likely to choose these options and more likely to nominate needs related to feeling special and social compared with the older cohort (Figure 6).
Figure 6 - Occasion emotional needs for selected age groups
This suggests that, in order for wine to appeal more to younger consumers, it may need to focus on appealing to this different profile of consumption occasion needs.