Thornton laid out some of the relative rankings, none of which was wildly surprising (France is at the top with 12 gallons per person per year, followed by Italy at 11 gallons, Spains at 7, Australia at 6.6, and Canada and the US both pretty low comparatively -- 2.6 and 2.5 respectively).(See Thornton page 214) It makes sense that the countries with the most esteemed wine production would be some of the most eager to consume their products, though on that front one would suppose that the United States might not be so low. I wonder if this is partly a regional thing in the United States; after all, California creates an astounding 90 percents of all US wine (see Bottlenotes book page 123). So someone in Iowa or Alaska or Texas may just have wine a lot less in their consciousness.
I was curious to look up the rest of the country-by-country rankings, and they did generally support a Western bias, though there were some noteworthy entries. The top consumer in the world was -- are you ready? -- Vatican City. 62 liters per capita (data from Wine Institute webpage). I'm guessing that's not just for use in the sacrament. Other big ones included a range of very wealthy small countries, such as Andorra, Luxembourg, and Cayman Islands. I had to search quite far down for a true non-Western country: Gabon clocks in at 5.8 liters per capita, and Turkmenistan at 4.4. I was surprised after our discussion, but Israel was very low on the list with 1 liter per capita. China was even further down, at 0.6 liters per capita. I suspect as wealth increases in China and they continue to seek an increasing amount of Western luxuries and entertainment traditions, that number will grow fairly quickly.
Super interesting and I've been thinking about this a lot since I moved to California and wine became a much bigger part of my life (I think more than just how much alcohol becomes more of one's life in business school. I think.). When I lived in Chicago, even among my high income earning friends, we drank beer and brought beer with us to parties. Wine was a less important part of our drinking life, and people certainly didn't have the same understanding of wine that I experience here. Perhaps that's geographical.
ReplyDeleteI lived in Italy for five months and the family I lived with consumed wine with the same ease they consumed water. It was simply always on the table, and meals naturally fit with it. They had pride in their local wines and would clearly trade up in quality on special occasions. Other times, they simply filled up jugs at the grocery stores for one euro per liter. Beer was always the exception, no matter where we went.
Growing up in Colorado and with family all over the Midwest, wine has always been treated as the "fancy" option. I don't think distance from the wineries is the only reason--I think the complexity and price of wine turns it into a luxury good. While my family on the farm in Iowa may buy cheap beer, even buying cheap wine (which is in the same price category) seems like a step up in fanciness. From my experience in the US (I don't have the data), I think there is a big class and lifestyle divide in wine. Some of those differences are more pronounced culturally in different parts of the US. But I never experienced that divide in Italy, so I'm curious about what the biggest drivers of that are.
I agree with Riley's comments above, namely that there is a certain mystique surrounding wine. I think that regions that produce wine tend to have higher per capita consumption, not just because the product is more readily available, but also because there is greater wine 'literacy' amongst the population in these regions. I think the combination of greater understanding of wine plus having an abundance of local wine significantly impacts consumption trends.
ReplyDeleteJames mentioned Gabon as the highest-ranked non-Western country on the wine consumption list. Gabon (a small country in Western Africa) is a former French Colony that still has meaningful ties with France, the impact of which is very evident in Gabonese culture. I think it is noteworthy that a former territory of the country with the highest wine consumption per capita globally (France) has the highest non-Western consumption per capita. Anecdotally, it's worth mentioning that only a small fraction of the population consumes wine on account of the high price of the imported good. This small fraction forms part of Gabon's upper middle and upper class who have had greater exposure to French culture (including wine) and have greater means to acquire said wine.
Great insights!
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