Worldwide Wine Consumption

I was shocked this morning to read this article article on wine-searcher.com that said the average Mexican drinks just a half liter of wine per year.  I drank that this weekend.

But they have me beat in beer consumption.  60 liters a year.  That’s impressive, but the French drink almost that in wine, close to 50 liters with Italy, Portugal and Switzerland right on their heels.  In Argentina we are up there as well at almost 25 liters.  The US average is just 10 liters per person.  I gotta admit I was pretty surprised at how low that was.  I’m also proud to say that I am performing well above average in this activity, I could even hold my own in France.

Even though our wine per capita numbers are lower than many other countries, we are still number one in overall total consumption, at an estimated 3.735 billion bottles a year.  No biggie.  China is a big player too, even though they only drink 2 liters per capita they are the fifth largest consumer of wine in the world, just beating out the United Kingdom.  They are also the sixth largest producer of wines in the world, which would explain this.

The total worldwide consumption is over 30 billion bottles a year.  At 2.75 pounds of grapes per bottle we are talking about more than 80 billion pounds of grapes being converted into the sweet alcoholic nectar of the gods every year.  That’s a lot of grapes.

Everyone rest assured that I am doing my best to single-handedly boost Argentina’s per capita consumption (and the United States’ as well when I am visiting my family).

So the question is, how much wine would YOU like to consume and where?  I am very happy here in Buenos Aires drinking San Gimignano Malbec, doing wine tastings, and trying whatever else I can get my grubby little hands on.  Be well.