20.6 Million

Approximate number of bottles of Brazilian sparkling wine sold each year. Sparkling wine represents 22% of Brazil’s total wine production, and Brazilian bubbly has started to gain international recognition. (The Rio Olympics won’t hurt.) Cave Geisse, Moët & Chandon, Aurora, and Casa Valduga are among the Brazilian sparkling wine producers to watch.

What percentage of the world’s oak is suitable to be made into wine barrels?

A. 65%

B. 15%

C. 2%

D. 40%

According to Groupe Charlois, one of the world’s leading stave-makers, a mere 2% of the worlds’ oak is suitable to be planed into staves that will ultimately be assembled to make wine barrels. Those staves, by the way, come from just the heart of the tree.

“The great is the enemy of the good,’ the saying goes, and this is also true of wine. When we urgently chase the ‘stellar,’ we actually do collateral damage. Running after exalted wine experiences can numb us to the sensational pleasures that a thoroughly good wine can deliver.”

—Terry Theise, wine writer

20.6 Million

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