Well, it turns out that Norwegians also do quite well when they purchase wines. Their government-owned alcohol retailer is called Vinmonopolet (= The Wine Monopoly). It was founded in 1922, and is the only company allowed to sell beverages with an alcohol content >4.75% in Norway (NB. wine is typically 12%—14.5% ABV; regular beers are around 5—6% ABV, while stronger craft beers can have an ABV of 6—10%). There are 331 Vinmonopolet locations, which is not too bad for a population 5.6 million people, with 4.5 million (80%) 18 years or older.
Their web site indicates that the number of separate items is as shown in the first table. Note that the USA does not do too badly, although this may change any time soon. France does twice as well as Italy, which does twice as well as Germany. It is worth noting at this point that Norway is not part of the European Union.
Their web site says:
“The primary goal of Vinmonopolet is to responsibly perform the distribution of alcoholic goods while limiting the motive of private economic profit from the alcohol industry. Equally significant is the social responsibility of Vinmonopolet, to prevent the sale of alcohol to minors and visibly inebriated customers.”
If we take a look specifically at wine, then the Vinmonopolet collection looks like the second table (click to enlarge). Note that each row simply lists the countries in decreasing order, stopping when it gets to the USA. Note also: Sparkling wine = atmospheric pressure of 5—6 atmospheres, while Bubbly wine = 1—2.5 atmospheres. Strong wine = fortified wine.
Clearly, red wine is preferred to white, and sparkling to rosé. The USA also has 260 beers, and 124 distilled spirits. Norway itself has 909 beers, 774 distilled spirits, 247 ciders, and 117 meads.
So, all in all, the Norwegians do just as well as the Swedes, in terms of wine availability, in spite of their government officially owning the retailer.
Other things that you may not know about Norway include (see also: 25 fascinating facts about Norway, and 14 Misconceptions tourists have when coming to Norway):
- The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo (the other prizes are in Stockholm, Sweden, since Alfred Nobel was a Swede) — this caused a sensation at the time of Nobel’s will, because Sweden and Norway formed a union at the time (1901), but Norway was arguing for independence (which it got in 1905)
- there is a small village called Hell (many tourists may be spotted snapping a photo of themselves in front of the station sign)
- skiing both modern (the Telemark ski) and ancient (4,000 year old rock carving) were invented in Norway
- the cheese slicer was invented in Norway, way back in 1925
- there are two versions of the Norwegian language — Bokmål is used by the vast majority of the country, while Nynorsk is more popular in rural areas.
