David Morrison has decided to close his blog, The Wine Gourd. It was a different blog, delving into the world of wine data instead of wine itself. "I'd rather show you a graph than a paragraph," Morrison wrote from Sweden. In doing so, he performed a unique and useful role for those seeking to understand what's happening in wine.

His final blog includes a graph showing total wine per-capita consumption has declined precipitously and pretty steadily since 1961. Beer has shown good growth, and distilled spirits has shown the best growth of all. Looking at the graph, we have to wonder why anyone has planted more vineyards in the last 30 years; we suppose it was the Falcon Crest effect.