A US Wine Market Forecast to 2012: Providing a Market Analysis of Industry Developments and Company Profiles of Key Players
In his long blue lab coat, a shirt and bow tie, a pair of wool, chalk-striped blue suit pants that probably belong to his father, Gabriel Clary strikes a slightly improbable figure in the wine department at Corti Brothers grocers in Sacramento, Calif.
Clary looks like a kid. No, he looks like an "American Idol" contestant, aspiring, nervous, wide-eyed, trying his best to impersonate his boss, Darrell Corti, who is to wine what Pavarotti was to opera.
Despite his official coat, his struggling beard, his best grave, bedside manner, Clary, hired four months ago, appears a stripling. Longtime customers are prone to give him a pass, preferring to consult with more vintage Corti clerks, Donal Smith and Kevin McGuigan; or, if he's available, the maestro himself.
As in wine labels, looks are deceiving.
Clary knows his stuff. And he loves his job.
His attitude? "People should drink what they want. Me, Darrell, Don, Kevin, we shouldn't tell anybody what to like. 'Gustibus non est disputant.'" (The kid quotes Latin! "Taste is not disputable.")
Corti couldn't have put it any better.
Beyond his ernest elan, Clary, 24, epitomizes a new, dramatic trend in the wine industry: the 20-something wine consumer. This is a thirsty generation, not beholden to wine tradition or critics, who are uncorking everything in sight and don't particularly care about what marries with what.
Their motto is: Pop that baby!
They are curious, confident, even brazen.
"They have a different approach to wine, beer and spirits than other generations," says Bob Small, professor of wine and business at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. "In this generation, there is an acceptability of wine as the alcohol of choice. And they drink for drinking's sake, for pleasure and conviviality, less in concert with foods and eating."
"They are drinking wine completely different than the previous generation," concurs Paul Wagner, owner of Balzac Communications and Marketing in Napa, Calif. "They are fearless. They are the iMac generation. They click and try something new. If they don't like that, they click and try something else.