A new YouGov survey asked Americans about their wine-drinking habits, their perception of how healthy wine is, and what they look for in a bottle of wine. For many Americans, wine is something they drink only occasionally, but when they do imbibe, they’re more likely to believe that it’s beneficial to their health than detrimental. When it comes to choosing a bottle, cost is the most important factor for many drinkers.
Most American adult citizens (61%) drink wine at least occasionally. One-quarter (24%) say they only drink wine on special occasions, 12% drink wine less than once a month, 5% drink wine once a month, and 7% drink one once every couple of weeks. Few Americans drink wine more often — once a week (5%), a few times a week (6%), or daily (2%).
People between 45 and 64 years old are the least likely to imbibe: 47% say they never drink wine.
There have been many highly publicized studies finding that drinking wine is beneficial or detrimental to a person’s health. Americans are far more likely to believe that drinking wine in moderation is beneficial to a person’s health (40%) than to believe it is detrimental (11%). About one-quarter (23%) think it has no effect and 27% are unsure.
18% of adults under 30 believe alcohol is detrimental to a person’s health; half as many (9%) adults 30 and over agree.
Among people who drink wine at least a few times a week, the majority (59%) believe that drinking wine in moderation is beneficial to a person’s health while just 5% believe it is detrimental. People who never drink wine are less likely to believe moderate drinking is beneficial (26%); 15% believe it is detrimental. 46% of non-wine drinkers are not sure.
Among people who drink wine at least occasionally, 49% say they prefer red wine while 36% prefer white wine. Women are about as likely to prefer red wine (44%) and white wine (42%); men are far more likely to prefer red wine (56%) to white wine (30%).
Among people who drink wine at least a few times a week, 64% prefer red wine and 28% prefer white wine.
Which wines do American wine drinkers enjoy? The most-loved in the poll is red wine: 31% of Americans say they love it and 41% say they like it.22% say they love Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% love sparkling wine, 20% love white wine, and 20% love pinot noir.
The least-loved wine is Syrah, which only 10% of American wine drinkers love. But very few dislike (10%) or hate (1%) it; 43% say they have never had it. 18% dislike dessert wine and 6% hate it.
When it comes to choosing a wine, price is by far the most important factor for many drinkers. 49% say this is very important and 40% say it’s somewhat important. Far fewer say the brand (20%), ratings (20%), varietal (18%), or alcohol percentage (18%) are very important to them when purchasing wine.
The least important factor for wine drinkers is the bottle or label design: Only 11% say it is very important while 23% say it is not important at all.
With price being such an important factor for American wine consumers, how much are they spending on wine?
Among Americans who drink wine, 58% typically spend no more than $20 on a bottle. 13% generally spend $10 or less and 45% typically spend between $11 and $20. While one might expect that wine drinkers with higher household incomes would spend more on wine, this is not the case. 60% of people with an annual family income of at least $100,000 are typically spending no more than $20 on a bottle of wine, about the same as among people with lower family incomes.
The survey also asked wine drinkers about the maximum amount they have ever paid for a bottle of wine. Most (63%) have never paid more than $40 for a bottle of wine. 11% say the most expensive bottle they’ve ever bought was between $41 and $50, 4% say between $51 and $60, 6% say between $61 and $80, and 4% say between $81 and $100. 7% of wine drinkers have paid more than $100 for a bottle of wine, including 13% of Americans with an annual family income of $100,000 or more.
For many wine drinkers, there’s no point in spending lots of money on a bottle of wine -- they don’t think they could tell the difference anyway. Among Americans who drink wine, 9% say they definitely could tell the difference between a $10 bottle and a $100 bottle of the same varietal; 26% say they probably could.
However, Americans who drink wine at least a few times a week are more likely to believe they could taste the difference. 29% think they definitely could taste the difference between a $10 bottle and a $100 bottle and 24% say they probably could.
— Taylor Orth and Carl Bialik contributed to this article
Related:
- Which foods and drinks do Americans think are bad for them?
- Bad habits that Americans have — and have given up
- Americans and Brits who drank more alcohol amid the pandemic were more likely to drink alone
See the results for this YouGov poll
Methodology: The YouGov poll was conducted online on March 5 - 11, 2024 among 1,000 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel using sample matching. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to November 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty (d3sign)
