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Northern Europeans, and especially the people from the British Isles, don’t seem to have the same healthy down-to-earth approach to alcohol.
That royal throne of kings, that sceptred isle, is not suitable for grapes...
Brits took their nonsensical alcohol habits with them in the new world.
Just my zwei farthings...
Yes, as I mentioned in an earlier post this reputation of theirs (or should I say "prejudice" against them?) extends to their descendants here on the other side of the ocean. (At least in my little corner it does.)
The variable might be “beer culture” origins vs “wine culture” origins.
In Italy - but I’m sure what I’m about to say holds true also in the rest of Romance-speaking Europe - wine is seen just as an agricultural product.
It’s no different to a carrot or a loaf of bread: binge drinking is no more “transgressive” than eating a pound of baked potatoes.
Drinking to get drunk is generally considered incredibly idiotic: what’s the point of aiming directly at an adverse side-effect without even enjoying what is flowing down your throat?
Interesting, though I wonder... Belgians are known for their love of beer but in my book don't really have a reputation for being drunk brawlers.
When I think of the booze brawling countries I tend to think of those in the British Isles, Germany and Scandinavia/the Nordics.
The variable might be “beer culture” origins vs “wine culture” origins.
In Italy - but I’m sure what I’m about to say holds true also in the rest of Romance-speaking Europe - wine is seen just as an agricultural product.
It’s no different to a carrot or a loaf of bread: binge drinking is no more “transgressive” than eating a pound of baked potatoes.
Drinking to get drunk is generally considered incredibly idiotic: what’s the point of aiming directly at an adverse side-effect without even enjoying what is flowing down your throat?
Northern Europeans, and especially the people from the British Isles, don’t seem to have the same healthy down-to-earth approach to alcohol. That royal throne of kings, that sceptred isle, is not suitable for grapes...
Brits took their nonsensical alcohol habits with them in the new world.
Just my zwei farthings...
Grapes have been grown in the UK since Roman times, its just our European 'friends' are too snobby to go anywhere near English wine, just another one of MANY reasons why we want 'out' of Europe.
Grapes have been grown in the UK since Roman times, its just our European 'friends' are too snobby to go anywhere near English wine, just another one of MANY reasons why we want 'out' of Europe.
The sooner we are free to do business with countries that don't look down their collective noses at us the better really.
Hahaha!
Nooo, pleease, don’t leave!
I actually love Britain and the Brits; I wouldn’t have read many Shakespeare plays in English if I didn’t, for example.
But... sipping excellent British wine while basking in the “sunshine” on a “warm” Shetland beach is not really my cup of tea, my dear friend
Hahaha!
Nooo, pleease, don’t leave!
I actually love Britain and the Brits; I wouldn’t have read many Shakespeare plays in English if I didn’t, for example.
But... sipping excellent British wine while basking in the “sunshine” on a “warm” Shetland beach is not really my cup of tea, my dear friend
This is a good example of what I mean, thanks for providing it.
This is a good example of what I mean, thanks for providing it.
In Italian we say that “non si può cavare il sangue dalle rape”.
It literally means “you cannot get blood out of turnips”.
Do you know what is the total vineyard surface area in Britain?
1600 hectares, that equal to 16 square kilometers, that equal to roughly 6 (six!) square miles.
That’s a tiny piece of land indeed.
In comparison Spain has more than a million hectares, France has nearly 800,000 hectares, Italy has 700,000 hectares.
How many bottles of wine (0.75 l) can you get from a hectare?
It depends on the vineyard’s yield; let’s say ten thousand, which is a nice round figure.
And now, let’s do the maths. I know, it’s hard, it’s almost as hard as rocket science but let’s get down to it nonetheless.
So, 10000 times 1600 yields 16 million bottles (per year).
So Britain produces around 16 million bottles of wine per year (the actual number may be lower, say 10 million, or higher, say 20 million, but at least we’ve found the correct order of magnitude).
Now If we divide such figure by the number of people in Britain above the age of 18 (let’s say 48 million for the sake of easy calculation) we get the average yearly consumption of British wine per British person (we’re of course assuming the whole production is absorbed domestically): 0.33 bottles, or 0.25 l.
It is a minuscule amount, don’t you agree?
British wine production is so small it can cover at the very most only a tiny fraction of the domestic market.
You can’t really go round saying that “your European friends are too snobby to go anywhere near English wine”, when there’s basically no English wine to go anywhere near...
By the way, I think tonight I’ll have a couple of pints of excellent English bitter... cheers mate!
In Italian we say that “non si può cavare il sangue dalle rape”.
It literally means “you cannot get blood out of turnips”.
Do you know what is the total vineyard surface area in Britain?
1600 hectares, that equal to 16 square kilometers, that equal to roughly 6 (six!) square miles.
That’s a tiny piece of land indeed.
In comparison Spain has more than a million hectares, France has nearly 800,000 hectares, Italy has 700,000 hectares.
How many bottles of wine (0.75 l) can you get from a hectare?
It depends on the vineyard’s yield; let’s say ten thousand, which is a nice round figure.
And now, let’s do the maths. I know, it’s hard, it’s almost as hard as rocket science but let’s get down to it nonetheless.
So, 10000 times 1600 yields 16 million bottles (per year).
So Britain produces around 16 million bottles of wine per year (the actual number may be lower, say 10 million, or higher, say 20 million, but at least we’ve found the correct order of magnitude).
Now If we divide such figure by the number of people in Britain above the age of 18 (let’s say 48 million for the sake of easy calculation) we get the average yearly consumption of British wine per British person (we’re of course assuming the whole production is absorbed domestically): 0.33 bottles, or 0.25 l.
It is a minuscule amount, don’t you agree?
British wine production is so small it can cover at the very most only a tiny fraction of the domestic market.
You can’t really go round saying that “your European friends are too snobby to go anywhere near English wine”, when there’s basically no English wine to go anywhere near...
By the way, I think tonight I’ll have a couple of pints of excellent English bitter... cheers mate!
Nothing you have written as ANYTHING to do with what I said anyway! Perhaps you should read through what I wrote again.
British wine production is so small it can cover at the very most only a tiny fraction of the domestic market.
You can’t really go round saying that “your European friends are too snobby to go anywhere near English wine”, when there’s basically no English wine to go anywhere near...
And especially since most English wine drinkers don't drink English wine either.
Nothing you have written as ANYTHING to do with what I said anyway! Perhaps you should read through what I wrote again.
Are you in London right now, aren’t you?
Ahh, I wish I was there!
We’d happily get into a British-wine-fuelled pub brawl which would quickly sort things out
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