Aperitifs, boomers and senior citizens drive alcohol consumption

How many times have we heard in recent times that the aperitif has changed the way we drink wine and spirits in Italy? And that this is why we need to intercept young people to support the consumption of Italian labels? Data seem to dispel, at least in part, this belief, with boomers regaining a leading role thanks to record growth rates in recent years.

According to the Observatory of the Italian Wine Union (UIV), which processed the data of the latest Istat 'census' on Italian alcohol consumption in 2023, it is not only young people who are the protagonists of the aperitif, but increasingly the over-55s. An army of 'boomers' that in the last 15 years has put the pedal to the metal (+112%, with a growth trend five times greater than that of the under-24s) to a ritual 'that still confirms itself as rather wine-centric thanks to its tendency to always embrace all age groups'.

According to the data, from 2008 to the present, the over-55s have risen from 20 to 29% in the 'pie' of alcoholic aperitif drinkers, the under-34s have decreased from 38 to 30%, and the intermediate age group (35-54) is more or less stable at around 40%.

Alcoholic aperitifs are a habit (a 'customary practice') for about 2.7 million boomers compared to 2.5 million under 24, out of a total of almost 22 million consumers who at home or outside do not give up a type of consumption that has been growing in the last 15 years.

 "The incremental trend - underlined by UIV - sees the third age as the protagonist, also thanks to a female exploit of pre-meal relaxation. In the period considered, the pink aperitif has in fact almost doubled (from 5 million to 9.2 million female drinkers of all ages), with an authentic boom of the over 65s (+165%)"..