Funky facts you didn't know about wine

As a pure French, I love wine and especially its anecdotes and funky facts.
I have selected the best ones, so just get confortable in your chair/sofa, fill your glass of wine and learn funny things while drinking...

According to you, which country consumes wine the most ?

The Vatican unexpectedly has the world biggest wine consumption ! A survey made by The Wine Institute revealed that the inhabitants consume in average 74 litres per person in 2012, that is to say around 99 bottles... France is the second consumer, very far behind with 44 litres per person per year.
How this phenomena can be explained ? Very simply. Actually, The Vatican's high average is due to the small number of inhabitants and also because of the beneficial tax system.

Apparently, you can find bottles of very fine champagne in the ocean floor...
At least, this is what a bunch of divers discovered in the Swedish waters back in 2010. They were doing a "diving safari" when they made this discovery : inside of a wreck, they found 168 bottles of Champagne, including some of the very famous brand "Veuve Cliquot" (owned by LVMH). After running some tests, it appears that these bottles were produced in the late 18th century, which make them the oldest champagne still drinkable. One of this bottle was sold for 30 000€. Who knows what we can find in deep seas ?

Would you imagine yourself taking a wine bath ?
Not far from Tokyo, a Japanese thermal center not only imagined baths of Beaujolais Nouveau but created them ! Every year, when it comes the season of this wine, the spa organizes a wine therapy as, according to the Japanese society, the wine is very good for the skin.

Have you tried "The Shit Wine"?
No kidding, this wine trully exists and is commercialized in France. In fact, this funny name has made it very successful ! The idea comes from a restaurateur who wanted to promote unknown wines from its region. And it worked with its punchy slogan "The worst hides what's best" !

Do you know that the oldest wine is almost 600 years old?

The oldest wine on Earth was indeed produced in 1472! It is a French white wine, from Strasbourg in Alsace, a region of the very East of France, closed to Germany.

This dry wine was only served in very specific occasions, meaning three times in its all history. The last time was in 1944, when The General Leclerc released Strasbourg from the German.



Of course, there are thousands of funky facts. Do you know some ?

Cheers & Enjoy !

K.