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The Wine Industry’s Double Challenge: Changing Drinking Habits, Still Feeling Exclusive
- Emily Goldfischer
- 9 hours ago
- 5 min read
Winemakers fly in from across the world. Buyers weave from table to table, tasting, talking allocations, margins, and what might make it onto lists and shelves. With more than 1,000 wines being poured by around 200 winemakers, the vibe feels part trade show, part reunion, and part real-time snapshot of what the wine industry is focused on right now.
I had never been to this kind of trade event before, and it was fascinating to watch how wines are presented, positioned, and sold to the people making commercial decisions. While I was mainly there for the diversity panel at the Hallgarten & Novum Wines Annual Tasting, I could not help noticing how many no- and low-alcohol options were being poured alongside traditional wines. A subtle signal that tastes, habits, and expectations are shifting.
Personally, I had a tiny tipple of my favourite English fizz, Nyetimber, as I was mainly there to observe. What interested me most was not just what was being sold, but who the industry is trying to reach, both as consumers and as future employees.
There is no denying wine is at a crossroads. Younger drinkers are re-thinking when, how, and why they drink, with wellness, moderation, and flexibility increasingly part of the equation. According to the Wine Market Council’s latest U.S. Wine Consumer Benchmark Survey (2025), overall wine participation has fallen to around 29% of legal-age adults, roughly nine million fewer people than just two years ago. In the UK, the picture is similarly stark. Research from IWSC shows that only around 26% of regular wine drinkers are aged 18 to 39, compared with nearly half aged 55 and over. On top of that, per-adult wine consumption in the UK has declined by roughly 14% since 2000.
What struck me, moving between the tasting tables and the panel room, was how closely these challenges are linked. Wine is being consumed less often, especially as everyday drinking occasions disappear. At the same time, the industry can still feel intimidating and exclusive, not just to new consumers, but to people considering a career within it. Those two issues are not separate. An industry that struggles to feel accessible to new employees will also struggle to feel relevant to new customers.
That is where the panel discussion came into sharp focus.
The context the industry cannot ignore
This backdrop is not new. In 2023, hertelier covered the Women in Wine report by Curious Vines and Proof Insight, which surveyed 726 women working across the UK wine trade. The findings were revealing. More than one in three women reported experiencing harassment while working in wine, with younger women disproportionately affected. Nearly eight in ten said sexism and gender bias remain an issue, and more than three-quarters felt women are underrepresented in leadership roles.
The report sparked intense discussion within the trade. A year later, it broke into the mainstream when The Times asked whether the wine industry was facing its own #MeToo moment, bringing wider attention to experiences many women had long described internally.
Against that backdrop, a panel on equity, diversity, and inclusion felt not just timely, but necessary. It was a fascinating discussion led by Janina Doyle, host of Eat Sleep Wine Repeat. Panellists included Laura Aiken, Program Manager, Drinks United; David Shearsby, National Accounts, Hallgarten & Novum Wines; Shayla Wardley, Head of Finance, Lay & Wheeler; and Michelle Moreno, Founder of QAB Leadership.
5 takeaways from the Hallgarten & Novum Wines panel
1. The real gap is not intention, it is perception.
Laura Aiken of Drinks United shared early insights from a new industry culture survey that gathered nearly 700 responses. One pattern stood out clearly. Senior leaders consistently believe things are better than entry-level workers, Gen Z, and marginalised groups experience them to be.
That perception gap is important. Because when leadership believes the culture is largely fine, urgency disappears. And when urgency disappears, meaningful change rarely makes it onto the agenda.
Throughout the discussion, this disconnect surfaced again and again. Not as resistance, but as misalignment between how progress is perceived at the top and how it is lived further down the organisation.
2. Diversity cannot be delegated to HR.
This theme was woven throughout the panel and reinforced during the Q&A. Diversity and inclusion are still too often treated as something HR has covered, rather than something senior leaders actively own.
Commercial priorities tend to dominate goal setting. Profit. Pipeline. Performance. People issues are addressed later, if time allows. What came through clearly was that progress only accelerates when leaders see diversity not as a side initiative, but as part of how the business is run, measured, and led.
Richard (Charles) Hayhoe, Head of Marketing at Coterie Holdings, whose portfolio includes Hallgarten & Novum Wines, spoke from his own experience in the C-suite. Affinity spaces can build confidence and connection, he noted. But if the people with real decision-making power are not part of those conversations, systemic change remains limited.
The panel’s response was not either-or, but both are needed. Supportive spaces matter. Small, mixed-group conversations are often where empathy is built and accountability begins.
3. Belonging is built in everyday behaviour, not recruitment targets.
Michelle Moreno of QAB Leadership pushed back on the industry’s tendency to focus on hiring metrics because they feel measurable. Recruitment matters, but belonging is created through how people are listened to, developed, and supported once they are inside the business.
Culture does not change because of a policy. It changes because of habits. Several panellists noted that retention, not recruitment, is becoming the more meaningful metric of whether inclusion efforts are actually working.
4. Inclusive storytelling starts with changing the room.
The panel challenged the industry to rethink where and how wine is talked about. Tastings are often held in traditional, institutional spaces such as private clubs and fine-dining outlets that subtly signal who belongs and who does not, a point raised by David Shearsby of Hallgarten & Novum Wines.
The rituals of wine can feel exclusionary if you have never been taught them.
That idea resurfaced during the Q&A, this time through a conversation about visibility and social media. Emmanuel Mireku, who shares wine content online as MannyDoesWine, noted that wine cannot attract new audiences or future talent if it refuses to meet people where they already are, on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
5. Fine wine can stay aspirational without staying intimidating.
Wine is facing declining everyday consumption, but premiumisation is rising. People are drinking less, but spending more on what they choose. That creates opportunity, not just risk.
Aspiration does not have to rely on status or jargon. Craft, provenance, experience, and story are far more powerful and far more inclusive.
The panel returned often to the idea that fine wine can remain special without feeling unapproachable. The question is not whether wine should lower its standards, but whether it is willing to widen its welcome.
What I am still thinking about
What stayed with me most was the repeated call for leadership to step forward, not in symbolic gestures, but in structural, measurable ways.
The wine industry is navigating a period of real change. Consumer habits are shifting. Wellness culture is reshaping how, when, and why people drink. No- and low-alcohol options are growing. Everyday relevance is slipping. At the same time, the industry is being forced to confront harder truths about who feels safe, supported, and able to build a long-term career within it.
Those challenges are not separate. They are deeply connected.
An industry that struggles to welcome younger drinkers often struggles to welcome younger talent. And an industry that continues to rely on legacy thinking, whether in how wine is sold, who holds power, or whose voices are heard, risks being left behind on both fronts.
If diversity in 2026 is going to mean anything, it will be because leaders stop treating it as a side conversation and start treating it as core business.
Less lip service. More leadership.