Bankrolled in part by actor Jason Priestley, the founders of Wine X magazine rejected the formula used by their competition, publications that provide industry news and features on wineries, winemakers and wine regions. The traditional format had failed to attract the interest of GenerationXers and younger adults, said Darryl Roberts, editor and publisher of the Santa Rosa, Calif.-based magazine.

"They are written so much above the average consumer that they're really intimidated and put off by it," he said. So when the bimonthly Wine X released its first color edition in 1997, the cover featured a close-up of a woman's bare midriff tattooed with a picture of a guitar with a neck shaped like a corkscrew. The title of the main feature: "Sex, Wine & Rock 'N' Roll." Among other stories was one about how to throw a dinner party to "focus on the spirit, not the bourgeois etiquette that we are often seduced into emulating."

Roberts, then 35, also wrote to readers in that edition that "if the wine industry is smart, it will recognize our potential and start supporting alternative venues, such as this, thus securing its future before they snub the largest generation ever produced in this country."

Five years later, with a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign in the wings, snubbing consumers is the last thing the wine industry is thinking about.

Although the wineries that advertise in Wine X don't stray near the boundaries the magazine's mostly 20-something editorial staff pushes, the industry is getting the message that it needs to lighten up so its product can resonate to a wider audience.

U.S. winemakers are beginning to grapple with demographics that are less than rosy for their future, and increased competition from foreign wine producers is adding new market pressures, according to the Wine Market Council, an industry-funded research and marketing group.

"Success for all necessitates expansion of the consumer base of the U.S. wine market now and for decades to come," council president John Gillespie was quoted in an announcement for a trade forum to be held this week at the inaugural VinExpo Americas in New York.

Ad campaign

Toward that end, the council next year plans to launch a $6 million national advertising campaign that could eventually grow to $20 million if needed. The council, funded by all levels of the wine industry, is akin to the Milk Advisory Board, which sponsored the "Got Milk?" dairy industry campaign.

The planned campaign hopes to counter intimidating factors that keep many people from buying wine and to portray it as something for everyday use at meals and entertaining, said Donna Duncanson. The marketing vice president for Stimson Lane Vineyards and Estates, Washington's largest wine company, Duncanson also has been involved in Wine Market Council research, and Stimson chief executive Ted Baseler is a member of the council board.

The nonprofit group sponsors a Web site at http://www.wineanswers.com to educate people about wine and suggest ways of incorporating it into a casual lifestyle.

The campaign, Duncanson said, would expand that service through conventional advertising and Internet links from sites geared toward food and active adults.

It also will use such means as sponsorship of cooking shows and promotions in retail stores, where about 75 percent of all wines are sold.

Although U.S. consumption of table wines has been increasing since 1990, the number of drinkers hasn't kept pace with the rise in the adult population, according to a council-sponsored report based on a study conducted in 2000.

Graying market

"In the long term a younger demographic segment must adopt wine as part of their lives if the industry's success is to be sustained," the report concluded. "The coming age of the 70-million-strong millennial generation (the eldest of whom turned 23 in 2000) presents both an opportunity and a challenge for the industry." The study found that 48.1 million of the nation's 192.4 million adults drank at least some wine. Of those, 19.2 million - 10 percent of all adults - made up what the study termed the industry's "core" market that accounted for 86 percent of all table wine consumption. Most alarming to the industry is that the core market is graying, with 70 percent at 40 years or older.

About 63.5 million adults drink alcoholic beverages other than wine. According to the research, the majority in that group was in the 21 to 29 age range.

Gillespie said the Wine Market Council's campaign will focus on increasing consumption among marginal drinkers, picking up whatever it can among nonwine drinkers but leaving it up to individual wineries to attract core drinkers to their brand.

"It's not about California wines or Washington wines or Australian wines; it's about making more people comfortable with wine," said Gillespie, whose council headquarters are in California's Napa Valley.

"Our strategy is to reach out to people who already like wine and drink wine but don't drink much of it."

Roberts, who said he's been dismayed at what he called years of neglect in industry efforts to attract new consumers, believes the industry would continue missing a sure bet if its campaign targets only marginal consumers in or approaching middle age.

He said he believes research that says lifelong spending habits are formed when people are in their early 20s.

Edgy attitude

After five years of cover art ranging from wine raves to celebrities, Roberts said his Wine X magazine has 132,000 paying U.S. readers, 100,000 in Australia and New Zealand, and a United Kingdom edition is to start soon.

The average age of subscribers is 27-1/2, he said, "but we're trying to get it down to 25."

The edgy editorial attitude pervades the magazine. Wine recommendations are based on one to three X's instead of the 100-point scale used by Wine Spectator, a leading international wine magazine. A single X means the wine "gets the job done," and a triple X touts an "exceptionally cool" wine.

Wine descriptions, too, are written with a dose of attitude.

In a recent edition with singer Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls on the cover, an X rating of a $10 bottle of Covey Run's 1998 Columbia Valley Chardonnay had this to say: "The 'Star Wars' prequel - a lot of special effects, but not much story."

Wrote a satisfied reader named Jonathan Nazareth in the letters to the editor section:

"Finally, a magazine that understands what it's like not to be the SUV/BMW drivin', cellular-glued, laptop-carryin' Baby Boomers. We are Generation X, and my God, we deserve more respect than that!"