The young and the Fearless

Ah, to be young and in love -- with wine.

The Millennial generation is voracious about viniferous matters, it seems. They consume more wine than previous generations did in their 20s and early 30s, and they have an equal thirst for information about what they're sipping.

"They really like to talk about wine," said Stephen Low, 23, manager of the Bacchus wine store in Shoreview. "They want a conversation: where the wine is from, why it's made the way it is. They want to learn everything about it."

And, of course, they want to drink it. In a 2008 survey by the nonprofit Wine Market Council, 47 percent of Millennials (ages 21 to 32) said they consumed more wine than in the previous year. Twenty-one percent of Millennials were identified as "core" wine drinkers (people who have wine at least once a week), a much higher rate than previous generations.

But like their predecessors at that stage of life, this younger crowd is into experimenting and exploring.

"Across the board, younger wine drinkers have no fears," said Chuck Kanski, 39, owner of Solo Vino in St. Paul. "The drinkers who have been around longer have created boundaries and barriers for themselves."

No such barriers exist for Millennials, who might try a Uruguayan red one night and a white from Santorini the next. Even when they find a wine they really like, they're ready to move on to something else.

"We get a lot of young people who say, 'My friend told me about a nero d'Avola or this albariño.' It seems like it's more of an exploratory thing," said Low. "We've been getting a ton of requests for Eastern European wines, which we can hardly get any of, or for Canadian wines or New York wines.

"But I'm the same way. I'm always more interested in something new. When a salesman comes in and says, 'I've got this merlot for $8 that just got an 89, and then I've also got this weird wine,' I'll go, 'Oh, I'll hand-sell that weird one.'"

The "weird" wine is likely to be imported, making it an apt fit for Low's generation. In 2008, 41 percent of the wines consumed by Millennials was imported, compared with 24 percent for boomers, the Wine Market Council found.

The differences are especially noteworthy in wines from the Southern Hemisphere. Chilean wines were purchased by 27 percent of Millennials and just 15 percent of older consumers. New Zealand (31 and 15 percent), South Africa (20 and 10 percent) and Argentina (17 and 10 percent) also saw wide gaps, as did -- surprise -- France (41 and 27 percent).

The world flattens

Timing is everything, it would seem. Millennials started reaching the legal drinking age in 1998, right as two worldwide waves began flowing: advanced winemaking techniques in all corners of the globe and a little thing called the Internet.

A tech-savvy generation has taken full advantage, checking out Gary Vaynerchuk's Wine Library TV clips and relying on users' ratings more than Establishment figures such as Robert Parker. Social networks extend well beyond, but still include, their circles of friends.

"People are always sending me e-mails with links, 'Did you catch this blog or video clip?'" said Shanna Marks, 29, a principal at the local wine wholesaler MT Global. "A lot of people are looking not so much to handbooks, but in an area they can point and click, get recommendations. And if there are positive comments from other people, they're willing to come in and buy it.

"Six years ago we'd do a tasting, and people would be bringing in a Wine Spectator magazine. Now they're bringing in printouts from the Internet."

An older medium is inspiring some young wine consumers, said Chris Wallin, 29, wine director at Interlachen Country Club.

"I hear everybody talking about those reality-TV cooking shows," Wallin said. "And they get curious with the food pairings. You give them a little knowledge and they start to understand how it works. It's a more curious crowd, like, 'What else is going on? What's the new thing?'"

So there's the perfect pairing for a generation: being inquisitive and adventurous about the food and the wine.

"If they're having a meal that normally would call for red and I recommend a white, they're more open to that," said Low. "If they're trying to pair with a meal like Thai food or Indian food, which a lot of people are doing, I'll recommend a riesling or gewürztraminer. These wines don't have the same stigma that is there with the older generation, of 'I don't like sweet wines.' They don't care if it's sweet or dry; they just want something new."

Connectivity trumps cost

As brave, courageous and bold about wine as they are, the Millennials do tend to favor a certain flavor profile, two of the wine purveyors noted. Call it wines that are meant to be drunk young. "Fruit-forward, definitely," said Wallin.

"Wines that are more full and complex and a little more jammy, really," Marks said. "With the whites you're seeing more chenin blanc, which I never saw before, more of the complex whites.

"Some of them are having dinner parties and heavy foods that they carry with heavy wines. You're seeing Super Tuscans and big shirazes. Some of these are like drinking ink, and they're awesome."

And expensive. No worries there, though, it seems. Perhaps it's attributable to being carefree, but whatever the reason, a whopping 53 percent of Millennials told the Wine Market Council that they at least occasionally spend $20 or more on a bottle, compared with 27 percent of boomers.

Low said he was surprised by how much his peers often spend on wine and called the "hot price point" a few dollars either side of $15, about twice the national average.

Perhaps a bigger priority for this generation than cost is connectivity. Local sommelier and wine instructor Leslee Miller saw that trend last summer while coordinating a dozen bachelorette parties. "Anytime you can tell a story about where this wine comes from, like a nero d'Avola from Sicily, it helps," Miller said. "Give them a little background -- they're like golden retrievers."

Having a large demographic always on the hunt for something new is good and bad news for wine purveyors: Millennials are buying a lot of wine, but they have little or no brand loyalty.

The result? "Where we used to have the theory of 'What's the next big grape?'" said Kanski of Solo Vino, "now the playing field is completely leveled."

The ultimate winner? Consumers, said Sea Change general manager Lorin Zinter, who at 36 doesn't quite qualify for Millennial status.

"It's remarkable to me how many diners in their 20s know quite a bit about varietals and producers, when they've only been able to legally drink for a few years," Zinter said. "Younger diners tend to want to know a little about all types of wines.

"I think that they will have a great influence on the wines we see in this market, and only make it better."

Bill Ward • 612-673-7643