And Now, Wine.

Jez Timms

A week ago, I wrote a post about World Whisky Day.

My father-in-law, who is a Glenfiddich aficionado, and who also likes Canadian Rye, demanded to know why I didn’t inform him of the event so he could properly mark the occasion.  I also got a lesson on how Canadian Rye is made.

Research for books can come from some very odd and unexpected places.  Expect to meet a Canadian Rye drinking hero in a future book somewhere!

While I was researching the post for World Whisky Day, I came across a related fact that raised my eyebrows.

The UK’s Independent newspaper ran the article, “Vatican City drinks more wine per person than anywhere else in the world“.

Over 105 bottles per person, per year, in fact.  And they get their wine tax free.

It’s a bizarre figure, but what I found more interesting was the observation that, because there are only 800 people in Vatican City, it only takes one or two prodigious drinkers to completely skew that average figure.

Which is true.

But when you have only a few people adding to the statistics, that also means any average figure must have a complimentary low and high.

Therefore, if the average is 106 bottles per person, and at the bottom of the spread, the least-indulgent bishop is only drinking 53 bottles a year, that means at the top end, someone is drinking a staggering 212 bottles per year.

Now, reason says there must be someone in Vatican City who drinks nothing at all.  Among 800 people, one teetotaler must surely included.  That pushes the quantity drunk by the top contender even higher.

That’s a lot of wine!

Although I suspect the statistical theory of small groups will crop up somewhere in a future book, too…

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