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When White Claw and other hard seltzers scratched their way onto the scene in 2016, the wine industry was thrown on its heels. The new category exploded almost overnight, growing exponentially year-over year, unabated by even the pandemic.
What was a $41 million industry five years ago is projected to exceed $2.5 billion in 2021, and it may reach $14.5 billion by 2027. That’s still nowhere near wine’s more than $330 billion annual impact, but every bite hurts.
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Hard seltzer appeals to younger generations especially, due to its lower alcohol and calorie content, which aligns with the modern wellness zeitgeist. Suddenly, wine, long considered the healthier alternative to booze and even beer, not to mention a critical component of the purported life-extending “Mediterranean diet,” didn’t look so fit.