whats in a name?

Wine, both sparkling and still, comes in a wide variety of bottle sizes. Over the centuries, these have been standardized into a set measured in units of a “standard” 750ml bottle.

The smallest in regular use (outside of 4-packs of sutter home and the like) is a “split” or quarter bottle. at 187ml, it’s a single generous glass, and so a good way to serve sparkling wines “by the glass.”

Still wines, especially those meant to age, age best in slightly larger than “standard” bottles. Many connoisseurs consider the magnum, 2 standard bottles, to be the ideal size for long ageing.

Beyond that, the larger sizes are mostly valued for presentation, and run from the Double Magnum (4 standard bottles) up to the absurdly large Midas, at 40 standard bottles.

Piccolo, split or quarter-bottle

187 ml, 1/4 standard bottle

chopine

250ml, 1/3 of s standard bottle

Demi or half-bottle

375ml, 1/2 of a starndard bottle

Half-Liter ("Jennie”)

500ml, 2/3 of a standard bottle

Clavelin (Vin jeaune)

.62 liters, 5/6 of a standard bottle

Standard Bottle

750 ml, roughly the old “fifth”

Liter

1000 ml, 4/3 of a standard bottle, roughly a “quart”

Magnum

1500 ml, 2 standard bottles

Marie-jeanne (Tregnum in port)

2250 ml, 3 standard bottles

Double-Magnum (Jeroboam in Champagne)

3000 ml, 4 standard bottles

Jeroboam (Bordeaux, Burgundy)

4500 ml, 6 standard bottles

Rheoboam (champagne)

4500 ml, 6 standard bottles

McKenzie

5000ml, 6.67 standard bottles

Metnuselah (Imperial in Bordeaux)

6000ml, 8 standard bottles

Salmanzar

9000 ml, 12 standard bottles

Balthazar

12000ml, 16 standard bottles

Nebuchadnezzar

15000ml, 20 standard bottles

melchior

18000ml, 24 standard bottles

Solomon

20000 ml, 26.6 standard bottles

Sovereign

25000 ml, 33.3 standard bottles

Goliath or primiat

27000 ml, 33 standard bottles

Melchizedek or Midas

30000ml, 40 standard bottles

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