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The revered Pope, known as ‘il Papa’ in Italy, lives in the Vatican City in Rome, yet an independent State where wine is sold practically tax-free for the residents through a single supermarket. The residents may not use the Riedel or other fancy glass stemware but according to the Institute’s latest statistics, the Vatican consumed 74 liters of wine per person (about 8 cases of standard 9 liters a year), around double the per-capita consumption of Italy as a whole or France. To get a better perspective, India consumes about .15 mL a person!
Lest one thinks the consumption is high because of a high dosage of ceremonial drinking at the communion, the Vatican residents drink wine regularly with meals and otherwise. In fact, throughout history, the tradition of wine making was kept alive not only because of the wine required for communion but by monks who had a healthy appetite for the beverage for their personal drinking.
Italian news reports suggest that Vatican residents are generally older and the lack of children is also figured into the statistics. They are overwhelmingly male, are highly educated and tend to eat communally, all these factors tending to lead toward higher wine consumption.
Another factor that makes the figure abruptly high is that the Vatican’s small size makes it easy for per-capita figures to be distorted by the activities of a small group like these residents known as the Holy See residents.
According to the Religion News Service report, other microstates, including Andorra (46 liters per person) and the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, off the coast of Canada (44 liters per capita), still fall far short of Vatican levels. Luxembourg, another small country — though with a population of 535,000 that’s many times larger than the Vatican’s estimated population of 800 — is No. 2 on the list, with a per capita consumption of around 56 liters per year.
Among big countries, France and Italy lead the way, each with slightly more than half the per-capita consumption of the Vatican.
Tags: Pope, Vatican City |