Yesterday I posted something I thought was quite interesting on the forums for QI. It was something I first found out on Silly Money, in which Rory Bremner said that in 1984, the central African country of Gabon was the highest per capita consumer of champagne.
When I posted this, one of the forum members, suze, said: "If you can prove that claim (i.e. that Gabon drank the most champagne per capita. That B, B & F said it was so I do not dispute.) to a standard that would be sufficient to use it on the show, I'll buy you a bottle of champagne."
So I went onto Google and found on Google books a passage from The Rentier State in Africa by Douglas Andrew Yates, page 213.
One of the most obnoxious symbols of conspicuous consumption of imported foodstuffs was Gabon's seemingly unquenchable thirst for champagne. According to figures put out by the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne, Gabon was the world's leading per capita consumer in 1984, "with one bottle for every three inhabitants." At one wedding held for a prominent political figure's daughter, 8,000 special magnums were specially imported and consumed (ibid).
As the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne is the trade organization representing the champagne industry, suze accepted it and I won the bet! However, seeing as how I live in the North-East, instead of sending me a bottle of champagne, she is sending me the money to buy one.
Cheek!
