America Beats France (and World) in Wine Consumption

Alex Van Buren
·Food Features Editor
Updated
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Gif: Mofobian, Tumblr

Hey, France! You may have a rep for better baguettes, better chocolate, better cheese, and better, um, French food, but we are destroying you in the wine department. The International Vine and Wine organization OIV announced this week that we beat out the French by 1,000,000 hectoliters (about 26 million gallons) in wine-guzzling in 2013 for the first time ever. That means we’re now the biggest wine drinking market in the world.

We’re so sophisticated!

Of course, our population dwarfs that of France. And they’re still crushing us on the per-head vino front. Reuters reports: “According to per capita figures that date from 2011, the average French person still gets through almost 1.2 bottles a week, about six times more than the average American.”

But thanks to a dwindling of consumption France-side—”we drink less wine by volume, more quality wine…there is also competition from other drinks such as beer,” OIV director general Jean-Marie Aurandine told Reuters—and renewed interest in vino stateside, we’re in the lead.

How to celebrate this triumph? Know how to sniff wine properly. Throw down at a party with your knowledge of Virginia wines. Learn the secret trick for making airplane wine awesomer. Buy a bunch of rosé, because ‘tis the season.

And toast your fellow American oenophiles as you sip.

[via Reuters]