Believe it or not readers this week reports have confirmed one fact; Vatican City is the wine capital of the world. Why exactly is this and what does it say about larger global wine trends?
Despite the fact that Vatican City, an enclave inside the Italian capital of Rome, is the smallest country of the world, and despite the fact that only boasts a population of roughly 800, it is the wine capital of the world. This is because data shows that more wine is drunk, per person, than in any other country.
Specifically data shows that people who live in Vatican City on average drink 74 litres in one year. This is actually roughly the equivalent of 105 bottles which means that they would be drinking one bottle every three days.
This actually stands at double the amount per person drunk by the populations of wine havens France and Italy. It’s actually triple the amount drunk by people at home here in the UK. So why is this? What really makes the Vatican the wine capital of the world?
One thing we have to think about here is demographics. Whichever way you look at it even the most ignorant person cannot deny that the Vatican has a somewhat unrepresentative of the rest of the world demographic. After all the Vatican is the traditional seat of power of the Papacy, the leadership of Catholicism.
So obviously communion services, which regularly involve the use of wine, come into play here. However aside from this, the population of the Vatican is old white males that are highly educated and eat in large groups. These demographics all contribute to the fact that people in the Vatican drink more wine than anyone else in the world.
Here we see how wine has played a key role in the culture of the western world for centuries. The Catholic Church has performed communion with the use of wine, to mimic Christ, for as long as anybody can remember and it makes sense that in light of this the Vatican, a community of Catholic priests and officials, would be the wine capital of the world.
At the Ideal Wine Company this reminds us of the history and cultural value of wine. It’s been around longer than almost anything else and that history is still factoring into its popularity today.
