Trailing the Baby Boomers and Gen X comes a youthful demographic category that has the wine industry smiling: The Millennials. This emerging generation appears more hospitable to wine than its predecessors, and willing to spend more for it.

So who are these up-and-coming wine consumers? In 2004, there were 70 million Americans between the ages of 10 and 27, a bulging segment only slightly smaller than the huge Baby Boomer category. Over the next decade, many will be trying wine for the first time, while others will be clarifying their preferences and settling on the brands they like.

The core wine drinkers among the Millennials—those who drink wine regularly—are about evenly divided between men and women. That’s a dramatic change from the Baby Boomer segment, whose men are much more likely to be the regular drinkers. For wine marketers, this gender shift is profound and should be a wake-up call. Does your wine program speak to women as well as it does to men?

Millennials view wine even more positively than Gen X or Baby Boomers. They say that they really like the taste (67 percent of Millennials versus 62 percent of Baby Boomers) and that they associate wine with fun times (79.5 percent for Millennials versus 72.4 percent for Baby Boomers).

The Millennials “are a force to be reckoned with,” says Evan Goldstein, vice president of public relations and education for Allied Domecq, whose wine brands include Clos du Bois, Buena Vista Carneros and Champagne Mumm. “In sheer numbers, they’re a big deal. And they spend a lot of money. They haven’t started thinking about 401Ks yet, and they have a sort of reckless abandon.”

Restaurateurs who misread this new generation may miss some sales opportunities, or some chances to up-sell. “Don’t write them off as beer and margarita drinkers,” says Goldstein. “Whether in clothing or wine habits, they’re showing a proclivity toward quality.”