Ep 31: What 1961 Can Tell Us About the Future of Wine

Global wine consumption recently hit its lowest point since 1961, the same year most people were filling jerry cans with wine from the local cooperative and serving it for dinner. In this episode, Felicity takes the first half of a two-part debate with Lulie Halstead, making the case that wine's extraordinary 50-year mass-market expansion was a demographic accident. The baby boomers brought prosperity, leisure, food culture and travel — and wine rose with their prosperity. Now the boomers are stepping back, and the impact on the world of wine is enormous.

But decline wasn’t inevitable. The success of Prosecco, rosé, and sparkling were sending loud signals that were being ignored.

Lulie pushes back throughout with data, marketing logic and genuine optimism — and in a fortnight she gets her turn to make the commercial case for wine's future. Spoiler: she's got a different point of view.

Meet Your Hosts:

Lulie Halstead founded and led international consumer research and strategy consultancy Wine Intelligence, and led it to a successful PE exit. Today she is a renowned global beverage alcohol and wine sector specialist, focused on consumer behaviour, strategy, retail and hospitality. An accomplished keynote speaker, she has spoken at more than 70 international events over the past 20 years.

Felicity Carter is an award-winning wine and drinks journalist, editor and content strategist. She led Meininger’s Wine Business International to become the world’s most must-read wine trade magazine, and was founding Executive Editor of The Drop/Pix, which the Wall Street Journal named one of the most trusted sources of wine information. A regular keynote speaker, she was named a 2024 Industry Leader by WineBusiness Monthly. Her Drinks Insider podcast won the 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Award for Audio.

Chapters

• (00:00:04) - A Question of Drinks
• (00:00:30) - A Question of Drinks, 1961
• (00:01:04) - World's wine consumption hits lowest level since 1961
• (00:02:05) - Is Wine Becoming Irrelevant?
• (00:04:05) - Will Wine Decline From 1961?
• (00:09:16) - Why Did Wine Soar?
• (00:12:24) - Robert Parker and the prestige of wine
• (00:16:46) - Wine and the food culture
• (00:20:44) - The Law of the Sigmoid Curve
• (00:24:26) - The decline of prestige in wine
• (00:26:45) - Wine's 'Peak' Moment
• (00:27:40) - The Good Wine of Yellowtail
• (00:28:09) - The Chinese wine crisis
• (00:31:54) - Wine's demographic peak, and the future
• (00:33:04) - Wine Review: The Marketing to Women Trend
• (00:36:38) - Inventing Sparkling Wine and Rosé
• (00:38:59) - Sparkling Wine
• (00:44:46) - Multiple occasions for wine drinking
• (00:46:41) - Women and the Aperitivo
• (00:47:26) - Wine's relationship with food
• (00:51:28) - The Middle Market and Wine
• (00:52:29) - The Wine Trade's Wrong Questions
• (00:53:21) - Winemaking's Place in Tourism
• (00:54:03) - Wine Prospects 2022
• (00:59:34) - Charlie and Felicity
• (01:00:23) - A Question of Drinks