Recently I saw a video that claimed in the 17th and 18th century the average european drank 7-9 liters of wine per day. How accurate is this and what was the "drunkest" period of history?

by bimyo
Aerandir

The current European wine production is 15 billion liters per year. Divide that by 365 to get production per day, and by historical population estimate for 1600-1799 (roughly 120 million) and you get a production of less than half a liter per person per day. To come to a figure of 7-9 liters per person, you would have to increase yield twenty-fold. Current European wine production takes up 30.000 square kilometers. That means that even with modern yield rates, a figure of 7-9 liters would require more than the entire arable land surface of France.