Yesterday I got my hands on the 2008 edition of the Economist's Pocket World in Figures on a flea market. It is a handy little book that shows a snapshot of how the world looked 2 years ago. Did you for example know that Sweden is on the world's 15th biggest wine consumer if you count litres per head. We consume two litres more every year year than Spaniards do. Or did you know that Bulgarians drink about five litres more beer per year than us nordic vikings? That's trivia, of course, but it does question your prejudices about the world.

Or is it the Bulgarians who withhold wine consumption from the Economist's eye? What about the rivers of homemade wine and rakija that flows on the countryside? As far as statistics of consumption go, what isn't sold doesn't exist.