Wine bottle nomenclature

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Wine bottle nomeclature relates to the various names given to sizes of wine bottles. The chart below expresses these sizes in multiples relating to a standard bottle of wine, which is 0.75 litres.

The reason that the standard metric bottle size should be .75 litre rather than 1 litre is curious. For many years, the U.S. standard (non-metric) wine and liquor bottle was the "fifth": 1/5 gallon, or approximately 26 fl. oz.; some beverages also came in half-gallon and one-gallon sizes. Europeans and other sophisticates were adopting metric sizes for beverages, as they already had in other industries, and they naturally moved toward sizes that were nice round numbers: 1 llitre, 2 l, 5 l. (The U.S. was the last advanced industrial nation to adopt the Metric System, behind the UK and South Africa) Then in the 1970's, the U.S. manufacturers of wine and many other beverages belatedly considered adopting the Metric System. Taking the long view, they noted that 1 litre was slightly larger than 26 fl.oz., but 750 ml was slightly smaller; similarly, 2 l was slightly larger than 1/2 gal; 1.75 l was slightly smaller. In the late 1970's, already a period of high inflation, the beverage merchants (if they had adopted the obvious metric sizes), would have had difficulty explaining a price increase for no apparent benefit to the customer; but, by adopting the smaller but less-obvious sizes, they could either reduce their prices slightly or increase their profits slightly. It's not hard to guess which choice the industry made. The appropriate laws were drawn up by industry lobbyists and dutifully passed by legislatures. The standard sizes are now 750 ml and 1.75 l (or 1.5 l). This U.S. standard is apparently now an international standard. The bigger sizes have followed suit, as the table shows. They made little sense in the days of yore; they make less sense now. That is not likely to stop people who want (and can afford) huge bottles. They will buy what is sold; they will pay what it costs. The one-time savings was passed on to shareholders and forgotten decades ago; the infelicitous sizing standards will persist and will persistently puzzle consumers. The industry has not noticed and very likely never will.

Switching to more-intuitive sizes after now would cost someone a fortune. It might make the lives of consumers easier but is unlikely to provably save them money; and such a change is unlikely to provably save the industry money.

Side-by-side comparison of champagne bottles. (L to R) On ladder: magnum, full, half, quarter. On floor: Balthazar, Salmanazar, Methuselah, Jeroboam

¹ Also known as a quarter bottle, split or snipe.

[edit] See also

• Wine bottle