Pinotblogger: the Capozzi Winery blog

Not that I condone excessive drinking, but this article on Modern Drunkard is really pretty entertaining. Andre the Giant, best known (by me) for his fantastic turn in the legendary Princess Bride, is by one author’s account the world’s greatest drunkard. The evidence? Compelling.

• Andre drank 7,000 calories worth of booze every day
• Andre once drank 16 bottles of expensive plum wine, a gift from the Japanese government, in one 4 hour stretch on his way to a wrestling match
• Total cost for his bar tab during the month he spent filming the Princess Bride? Just over $40,000
• In one 6 hour sitting, Andre drank 119 12 oz bottles of beer. Thats 1 beer every 3 minutes.

But it’s all not just debauchery and overindulgence. Something extremely positive came from the Giant’s incredible tolerance for ethanol. A medical breakthrough in fact. From the Modern Drunkard article:

The time arrived [for back surgery due to effects stemming from his glandular disease], and the anesthesiologist was frantic. He had never put a person of Andre’s size under the gas before and had no idea how much to use. Various experts were brought in but no solution presented itself until one of the doctors asked Andre if he was a drinker. Andre responded that, yes, he’d been known to tip a glass from time to time. The doctor then wanted to know how much Andre drank and how much it took to get him drunk.

“Well,” rumbled the Giant, “It usually takes two liters of vodka just to make me feel warm inside.”

And thus was a solution found. The gas-passer was able to extrapolate a correct mixture for Andre by analyzing his alcohol intake. It was a medical breakthrough, and the system is still used to this day.

Fascinating. So I suppose the next time you or a loved one have to go under, be sure to say a littler prayer of thanks to Andre the Giant, the World’s Greatest drunkard.