Tinder Love: Millennials and Sweet Wine

Last Updated August 14, 2023

The love affair between Millenials and sweet wine has become cliche.  “Do you have sweet wine?” is arguably asked more than anything else by Millenials at wine shops and wineries across the country.  How do I know?  I’m the guy who always gets stuck waiting behind a Warby Parker bespectacled Millenial asking where is the Castello Del Poggio Smooth Red that he or she drinks while swiping on Tinder for a date. 

Thereafter, there is always this sense of community between the sales associate and I once it is my turn to typically ask if they have any more bottles of a particular barolo or brunello.  The instant community sprouts from mutual contempt for sweet wine drinkers.  The sales associate knows I disdain the sweet wine drinkers by the nature of my inquiry and I know the sales associate feels the same way by their flippant response to the sweet wine quest, ie “It’s next to the root beer.”  Flippant, wouldn’t you say.

Historically, wine possesses complexity and acidity for balance.  The underlying problem with sweet wine is that it is sweet–thereby lacking in balance.  This reminds me of a historical chart from a few years back that compared American consumption of soda with the rest of the world’s.  We, Murica, and broke the X/Y axis.  Our soda consumption was literally off the charts. 

Millennials may drink naturally flavored carbonated water now (naturally flavored carbonated water still tastes sweet, e.g. La Croix Natural Mango Essenced Sparkling Water.) but they grew up drinking sugary soda–lots of sugary soda like Sprite Remix, the ultra sweet version of the lemony lime refresher.  The iteration was introduced when millennials were soda addicted teenagers if you needed further convincing why balance is lost on the generation.  

However, what I appreciate about their love affair with sweet wine is that they are at least drinking some form of wine.   We would prefer if they drank dessert wine like Sauternes on par with the sensibility of Wine Advocate subscribers.  However, their purchasing power helps keep wineries economically viable and fund those costly small production Cabernet Sauvignon coups for traditional wine drinkers.  

Let's take a peek into the economics and operations of a typical winery.  Wineries employ “vineyards teams” to pick grapes.  There is a lot that goes into the task as part of harvesting, starting from cutting fruit from the vine to sorting to pressing to punch downs and cold soaks.  The arduousness of picking grapes is deeply appreciated by me and should be by you too.  So the next time I’m stuck waiting to ask about more bottles of an Italian dry wine behind a Millennial looking for more moscato I will be sure to remember the diligent efforts of the vineyard teams who Millennials help keep employed.