A Hard-Earned Thirst...

I read this week that alcohol consumption in Australia will reach its lowest point in 10 years this year.

I know. I couldn't believe it either.

Yet the Age newspaper has reported that a 2.4% drop means that Aussies will down just 9.8L per capita in 2012. This is ahead of our US compatriots (8.61L) but well-behind the Brits at 11.75L.

So what's the deal?

Well I'd first like to say that the badge of hard-drinking Aussie is pinned to the proud chest of the nation that gave the world Foster's...and kept the best beer (and wine for that matter) for itself.

 

Yes, Australia was not built on hard graft alone. Good call....

The second point I'd like to make is that this dubious honour is bestowed rapidly upon any colonial and then put to the test with considerable alacrity...and mixed results. At one after-work drinks sesh shortly after I landed on England's green shores (actually I fell in the snow and broke my elbow but that's another story), I found myself hard-pressed to keep pace with pint after pint downed by my workmates in the space of an hour. Brits can drink!

Interesting to note though that this decline Down Under has occurred in the time since I departed. So it appears to me that whoever my 'replacement' is (the population has grown to over 21 million since 2004 so someone is standing in my thongs flip flops shoes) is not pulling their weight. So there's nothing for it but for me to get down to Melbourne town and support my countrymen and women in their endeavours to regain their crown.

The Big Wine Cask is at Buronga, NSW just over the border from Mildura in country Victoria.

So to all you Aussie blokes and sheilas down under, don't despair - I'll be there in just 43 sleeps, drinking boots at the ready.

And I could really do with a nice Shiraz or two...