When Did You Get Into Wine?

A new survey pinpoints the precise age most Americans experience a "wine awakening."

Red wine and glass on background

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Red wine and glass on background

Photo by: artisteer

artisteer

When did you first start to develop your taste for wine? In your 20s? Maybe not until your 30s?

A new study pinpoints the precise age most Americans have their “wine awakening” – and that age is ... 29.

The survey of 2,000 wine drinkers commissioned by Jordan Winery in Sonoma County, California, indicated most Americans don’t really begin to appreciate wine until the very end of their 20s. Thirty percent of us are introduced to wine by a friend, while 21 percent come to it on our own and 17 percent of us get into it via a romantic partner.

The gateway sip? More people (17 percent) cited Zinfandel as the wine they first remember liking than any other variety, according to the survey, conducted by OnePoll and cited by the New York Post.

Interestingly, however, the wines most people can name off the top of their head are Chardonnay (69 percent), Merlot (62 percent) and rosé (58 percent), according to the results. Millennials can name more wines off the top of their head than older folks – a finding both surprising and not surprising at all, given that the older folks have been drinking longer.

And by the way, once we Americans get into wine (one in four of us prefer it to other alcoholic beverages, according to the survey), we learn the moves, too. More than half — 56 percent — of U.S. wine drinkers say they sniff wine and 48 percent swirl it before sipping. So fancy.

Photo: iStock

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