Interesting graphic representation of wine consumption in recent years over at economist.com.
The French are drinking less of it than before, but continue to outslurp everyone else: the average French adult consumed fewer than 60 litres of wine in 2007, a sharp drop on the total of four years earlier. ~ Tippling less?
Odd title: Tippling less? As if “tippling” was a word only applied to wine.
Note the countries on the graph, top to bottom. Just below the French are the Italians, who’ve managed to increase their intake of wine. At the bottom of the list are countries that consume copious amounts of strong spirits, the US and Russia.
Let’s see what a US politician said about spirits:
“No nation is drunken where wine is cheap and none sober where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage. It’s extended use will carry health and comfort to a much enlarged circle.” ~ Thomas Jefferson, US minister to France and later President of the US
So, is less wine translating into more of the other, less healthy stuff? It would seem so to anyone who’s been following the news from Italy, where a recent spike in public drunkenness has provoked several local governments to limit bar hours and drinking in public. Other places in Europe are seeing the same phenomenon. Interesting.
Read: Tippling less?