Winebits 750: Wine consumption, wine humor, California wine

This week’s wine news: World wine consumption statistics, plus the New Yorker offers wine buying tips, and a 50^th anniversary celebration for some of California’s top wineries

• Not nearly as much: The Europeans still drink the most wine in the world, per capita, but their consumption has declined dramatically, reports Decanter. In France, In France, consumption has fallen by about half, per capita, in the last 50 years, as it has in Italy. The Portuguese are the biggest wine drinkers in the world, with about 69 bottles a year per person. Per capita consumption in the U.S. remains a little more than one bottle a month, though we’re still the biggest wine drinking country in the world by total volume. Neo-Prohibitionists: Explain how we’re all getting drunk every night on a bottle of wine a month, would you?

• Gen Z, baby! Nate Odenkirk, writing in The New Yorker, has figured out wine buying, an offers this advice: “What font do you see? Helvetica? Loopy cursive? Tasteful balloon letters? Yes, please! The wine inside may be aged, but the label screams Gen Z.” His take – which includes three other tips — is appropriately humorous and and playful, as we would expect from the magazine that published James Thurber and S. J. Perelman. “Farewell, My Lovely Appetizer,” anyone?

• Happy birthday: Dave McIntyre, writing in the Washington Post, demonstrates why he is one of the top writers in country with this take on the 50^th anniversary of some of California’s most important wineries. They include Caymus, Silver Oak, Dry Creek, and Smith-Madoren. Dave tells the story with perspective and intelligence, never once lapsing into winespeak. Perhaps most importantly, he writes for an audience that may be interested in wine, but doesn’t want to geek out over it. Would that more U.S. wine writing did that.