Wine and or champagne bottles come in a variety of sizes. The standard wine bottle size holds .75 liters or about 25.36 ounces. In the late 1800’s, early 1900’s, several oversized wine bottles were introduced in France. Most of these large wine bottles were named for Biblical kings and other Biblical figures. It is not known with certainty why the large bottles were given Biblical names but it is assumed that that these Biblical names were used to add to the grandness and uniqueness of the wine bottles.
Originally, the large wine bottles were blown and shaped by hand. Over time this proved dangerous, as any weak spots in the large bottles could cause an unexpected leakage and or breakage. Today, the very large bottles are made via hand and machine to better make the bottles’s thickness uniform and strong.
Due to their size, most of the large bottles are usually stored upright,which is obviously not ideal for wine storage and wine aging. Further, the large bottles are too big to fit in wine coolers or wine refrigerators. Because of this, the shelf life of large bottled wine is shorter than smaller bottled wine and in general should be consumed within six months of obtaining it.
| Bottle Name |
Bottle Name Origin |
Bottle Volume in Liters |
Number of Standard Bottles |
| Demi |
The French word for half |
.375 |
.5 |
| Bottle |
From the French word bouteille |
.75 |
1.0 |
| Magnum |
From the Latin word magnus (great) |
1.5 |
2.0 |
| Jeroboam (or Double Magnum) |
Biblical king |
3.0 |
4.0 |
| Rehoboam |
Biblical king |
4.5 |
6.0 |
| Methuselah |
Biblical man lived 969 years |
6.0 |
8.0 |
| Salmanazar |
Biblical king |
9.0 |
12.0 |
| Balthazar |
Biblical wise man |
12.0 |
16.0 |
| Nebuchadnezzar |
Biblical king |
15.0 |
20.0 |
Published 9/20/2009 12:00:00 AM
Tags: Wine Bottle