By Gregory Dal Piaz
This should have been a simple task. After all, the numbers I'm using come from The Wine Institute's annual tally of wine consumption, this time for the vintage of 2010. So it's just a simple list, right?
Well, yes and no. No because it doesn't seem that this is as definitive of a list as the folks putting it together might have us believe. I've found two additional sources of information coming from the World Health Organization and the Organisation Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin that contradict some of the information contained in The Wine Institute's list. Rather than try to reconcile what must be some quirks of accounting, I'm just running with what I've got.
So here's a list that is commonly referred to as a countdown of wine consumption among countries, which is patently false since this is actually based on wine purchased rather than consumed, just another reason to take these surveys with a grain of salt. That and the fact that while many of the countries seem to jump around a trend line over the years, others seem to exhibit changes of 25 percent or more from 2007 through 2011. Maybe it's the Bordeaux Futures programs or all of those magnums of 2007 Chateauneuf-du-Pape that swung the market.
In any event, join me as we count down the 11 top purchasers of wine in 2010. Why 11? Mainly because I can't resist including Andorra!
Photo courtesy of sillydog via Flickr/cc
11 Countries with the Most Wine Drinkers
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