is 8.2 gallons too much?

I heard a story on NPR a couple of weeks back about how much alcohol the average Russian drinks. The report said that the average Russian consumes 18 liters of vodka each year – this works out to just over 4.75 gallons. The report said that even though Russians have long been known for their vast alcohol consumption that Russian officials were quite shocked to learn just how much their countrymen were consuming.

I mentioned this to my better half and she said, “You drink at least that much. I mean you have a manhattan every night and that accounts for probably 5 gallons and that doesn’t take into account all the wine and port you drink”. I brushed this off as so much hyperbole.

Then I got to thinking more about it. I did the calculation this morning. I have a manhattan almost every single day. My manhattan is 3 ounces of Maker’s Mark bourbon, 3/4 of an ounce of sweet vermouth and 3 dashes of Angostura bitters. I did the math taking 3 ounces of bourbon times 350 days – figuring there must be at least a few days when I don’t have a manahatten – and came up with 1,050 ounces. Divided by 128 ounces – the number of ounces in a gallon – and i came up with 8.2 gallons of bourbon yearly. And, as Cristina so adroitly pointed out, that does not take into account a hundred bottles of wine + or -.

Is this an issue?