Another Cliché Washes Down the Drain

By 2008 France will no longer be the biggest wine-consuming nation and the French individually no longer the biggest drinkers

reports the AFP, before adding a piece of news that will make it more difficult in the future for Frenchmen to ridicule Americans as a nation of hamburger-eaters and soft-drink guzzlers…

The United States is likely to be the country with the highest consumption in 2008, followed by Italy and then France, the study … said. …

In 2008 [the United States, Britain, and Germany] would account for 38.7 percent of world consumption of still wines from 25.4 percent in 2003. This amounted to an increase of nearly 9.0 million hectolitres.

France would also lose its place as the country with the highest per-capita consumption of wine.