Wine Bottle Sizes

Wine Bottle Sizes

Wines come in a myriad of styles from big, full bodied and fortified, to light and petite. The main change in sizes and shapes for wine bottles began taking place in the early to mid 1700’s.

The different wine bottle shapes and sizes started taking shape once it was discovered that cork could act as a sealing agent, which allowed the wines to age or at least not spoil.

The next step in the evolution of wine bottle shapes and sizes came about when it was discovered that larger bottles not only looked better, they could also change the taste of a wine. This ability to change took place because the larger sized wine bottles allowed the wine to age and develop over longer periods of time than the standard glass bottles of the day.

Larger wine bottle sizes are well suited to longer aging of wine. It is a fact that wine from larger format wine bottles age more slowly, and possibly even develop more complexity and nuances than wines from smaller wine bottle sizes. This is due to the smaller amount of air, or more accurately, (oxygen and sulfur dioxide) that resides between the cork and the wine.

Very large format bottles have one other advantage and disadvantage. On the plus side, large format bottles, due to the thicker glass, and the volume of wine inside the bottle are less likely to experience temperature variations. Steady temperatures can help wine age more evenly.

All wine bottle sizes have their own, unique name. Interestingly, you will note that many of the unique names for various wine bottle sizes were inspired by Biblical characters. 

Here an image with the diferent bottles and their names.

375 ml Demi or Half: Holds one-half of the standard 750 ml size.

750 ml Standard: Common bottle size for most distributed wine.

1.5 L Magnum: Equivalent to two standard 750 ml bottles.

3.0 L Double Magnum: Equivalent to two Magnums or four standard 750 ml bottles.

4.5 L Jeroboam: Equivalent to six standard 750 ml bottles.

6.0 L Imperial: Equivalent to eight standard 750 ml bottles or two Double Magnums.

9.0 L Salmanazar: Equivalent to twelve standard 750 ml bottles or a full case of wine!

12.0 L Balthazar: Equivalent to sixteen standard 750 ml bottles or two Imperials.

15.0 L Nebuchadnezzar: Equivalent to twenty standard 750 ml bottles.



Source:

https://www.vinetur.com/2016101825777/que-es-una-botella-magnum.html

https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/wine-topics/wine-educational-questions/size-matters-explanation-large-bottle-formats/

https://winefolly.com/tutorial/wine-bottle-sizes/

https://us.zzysh.me/blog/everything-need-know-wine-bottles/