On Wine: Wine world, we've got your number

Published January 17, 2007 at midnight

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A look at some numbers from the world of wine, culled from far and wide on the Internet:

• 72 percent of singles polled say wine knowledge makes members of the opposite sex more attractive.

• 16 gallons: yearly per-capita wine consumption in France

• 2.4 gallons: yearly per-capita wine consumption in America

• 13 percent of Americans drink 89 percent of the wine.

• 43 percent of Americans never drink wine.

• 30 percent: Drop in risk of cardiovascular and heart disease for people who drink seven to 13 drinks a week, compared with abstainers.

• 80-120: calories in a 4-ounce glass of wine

• 0: carbohydrates in a glass of wine

• 54 percent of American wine drinkers are female.

• 35 percent of women are supertasters (more sensitive with more taste buds), compared with 10 percent of men.

• #10 million: amount the taste buds of Angela Mount, chief buyer for a UK supermarket chain, are insured for.

• 77 percent of wine is bought by women.

• 70 percent: jump in sales of pinot noir since the movie Sideways.

• $7-and-up: price range the industry considers "premium wine."

• $2.50: wholesale price of a bottle of Salmon Creek wine.

• $30: average restaurant price of Salmon Creek wine.

• 90 percent of wine is ready to drink upon release.

• 55 degrees: what they mean by "room temperature" for serving reds.

• 68 degrees: temperature of average room in America

• 10,000: number of odor molecules humans can detect.

• 260: number of components that make up the smell of a rose

• 135: odors listed on the Wine Aroma Wheel

• 3-4: maximum number of smells humans can perceive at once.

• 25 percent of U.S. wine drinkers polled said they would drink Polish wine.

• 0: cases of Polish wine imported to U.S.

• 50: number of U.S. states with at least one bonded winery

• 9,892 feet: altitude of Argentina's Bodega Colomé, world's highest commercial vineyards

• 75 million cases: yearly output of world's largest wine producer, Gallo

• 7-by-11 feet: size of Canada's Africus Rex, world's smallest winery

• 756,285 acres: area covered by world's most widely planted wine grape variety, Airèn

• 400 years: age of world's oldest grape vine, in Maribor, Slovenia

• 2.5 pounds: amount of grapes that go into a standard bottle of wine

• .026 fluid ounce: capacity of world's smallest wine bottle, 1.2 inches high, made by California's Klein's Designs

• 60 miles: size of Moldova's Cricova Wine Cellar. This labyrinth of streets 200 feet below ground boasts truck lanes, traffic lights and 1.2 million bottles.

• 100,000 corks: yearly output of the Whistler Tree, world's largest cork tree in Alentejo, Portugal

• 1.2 ppt (parts per trillion): perceptible level of TCA, a cork-borne wine contaminant. Akin to detecting one sugar cube dissolved in 100 Olympic-sized pools.

• 5 percent to 20 percent: estimated number of wines "corked" or contaminated by TCA.

• 50 million: number of bubbles in a bottle of Champagne

• 70-90 pounds per square inch: pressure inside a bottle of champagne, two to three times more than in car tires

• 177 feet, 9 inches: longest recorded flight of a Champagne cork

• 3 times more: likelihood of being killed by a flying champagne cork rather than the bite of a venomous spider

• $100,000: most expensive bottle of white ever sold, a 1787 Château Yquem

• $160,000: most expensive red ever sold, a 1787 Château Lafite with the initials Th.J. (Thomas Jefferson) etched on it. Subsequent, but not conclusive, examinations claim engraving was done by "an electric power tool."

• $225,000: most expensive wine never sold, a 1787 Château Margaux. When a waiter at New York's Four Seasons knocked it off a table and broke it before it could be sold, owner William Sokolin collected $225,000 in insurance.

Recommended

WHITE

• Raimat Costers del Segre Chardonnay 2005 (Spain) $11

• Quivira Fig Tree Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2004 (U.S.) $16

• Marc Kreydenweiss "Partager avec Toi" Pinot Blanc 2004 (France) $19

• Matanzas Creek Sauvignon Blanc 2005 (U.S.) $20

RED

• Legaris Ribera del Duero Crianza 2003 (Spain) $15

• Priorat Scala Dei "Prior" 2001 (Spain) $15

• CG di Arie Syrah Sierra Foothills 2003 (U.S.) $30

• Sartori di Verona Estate Collection Amarone 2002 (Italy) $34

Jester@corkjester.com