Wine still stands as among the most popular drinks in the entire world, alongside other staples such as beer, coffee, tea, and plain water. Today’s market for wine is still going strong, and in storage cellars across the world, enthusiasts may find rare and expensive bottles of this drink. Storage cellars may also be home to more mundane, everyday wine in a flavor that the owner likes. Or, storage cellars may be those in a liquor store or wineries that keep their stock cool. In times past, storage cellars were the best if not only way to keep wine cool and safe. Today, with freezers and large fridges, storage cellars are often above ground. Still, antique storage cellars in France and Italy, for example, may capture the imagination. Some wine lovers looking for their favorite wine brands can find some in storage cellars around the world. What else is there to know about red wines, white wines, or even buying wine online?
Wine Today
Wine dates back at least as far is the Romans and Greeks, and the word derives from the Latin “vinum.” For over 2,000 years or more, wine has been a favorite drink in Europe and nearby areas, from the Greeks to medieval monks to today. As of the modern age, France, Italy, and the American state of California may be considered the “big three” sites of wine production, and many of the world’s favorite brands come from those places. For Americans in particular, there is always interest in wine, and surveys have been done to see who is drinking wine, and how much.
Wine stands as the most popular beverage among women surveyed in a recent study, beating even beer, and the surveyed women often chose New Year’s as their favorite time to consume it. What may be surprising to hear is that toady, it is the younger adults who love wine the most. Those of the Millennial generation, those born 1982-1995, are proving themselves a major demographic in wine consumption, beating out even their Baby Boomer parents. USA Today, for example, has found that Millennials consume 42% of all the wine in the United States in the year 2015, and they drank 159.6 million cases of it in that year. Among all Millennials who drink wine more than once a week, they drink 3.1 glasses per sitting on average. And these young adult drinkers often want a fine drink; as of January 2016, around 17% of all Millennials spent over $20 on a single bottle of wine.
Who else drinks? Right now, those of the tentatively-named Generation Z, born about 1996-2010, are often too young to drink, but in the coming years, they might prove themselves great wine lovers like the older Millennials. And the older generations have hardly given up their wine glasses. Gen Xers and Baby Boomers love wine too, and they may often patronize local wineries and vineyards and choose the bottles they like there. And when all 21-or-over Americans are added up, there is a healthy demographic of wine lovers in the United States today. Back in 2016, for a recent example, all drinking Americans consumed 949 million gallons of wine, whether 21 years old or 75. And in February 2017, some 5% of Americans reported that they drink wine every single day.
How to Buy
A person looking for fine wine may find some in a liquor store, but a wine enthusiast may want to visit a more specialized place: a winery. Here, a wine lover may find more obscure, expensive, or unique brands to experiment with or buy regularly, and these wineries may also offer tours for interested guests, as well as accessories like wine sleeves or cork screws.
Customers can also buy wine online if they don’t live near a winery, or if their favorite brand or flavor is difficult to find in person. In this case, a customer can order their wine online, and it will be delivered by truck to a warehouse near the customer’s residence. Wine suffers in hot air, so it will be unloaded into the warehouse’s fridge and kept there until the customer (who will be notified) can visit and collect it.