Every now and then, DCist takes a page from SportsCenter’s playbook and lays some local liquor trivia on you. This time around, we ask, DID YOU KNOW that the District of Columbia is the top brandy-consuming jurisdiction per capita in the country? That’s right, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, D.C. residents swig more of the distilled wine per head than do the residents of any American state or territory.

It wasn’t always that way. For years, Wisconsin — which is typically known for beer production, cheese, and Richie Cunningham — was the country’s leading consumer of brandy, on both a volume basis and on a per-capita basis. One theory suggests that the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago is responsible for Wisconsin’s longtime designation as Brandy Central. As the unproven story goes, the Korbel brothers (who founded the company now more famous for their cheap sparkling wine that they insist on calling Champagne, notwithstanding the fact that it’s made in California) introduced their California-made brandy at the Fair, which was apparently attended by thousands of Midwestern German-Americans. According to the hypothesis, many of these German-Americans lived in Wisconsin and happened to take a liking to the stuff.

But as the German-American population got older and shrank in size relative to other ethnic groups, per-capita brandy consumption in the Badger State decreased. Even the name of a popular brandy cocktail — the “Old-Fashioned” — tells you that the kids didn’t dig the distilled spirit as much as their forebears did. And D.C. wrested the per-capita title from the Wisconsites just a few years back. How did we do it? Were a slew of brandy-swilling Dr. Frasier Cranes responsible?