When is a bottle not a bottle? When it’s a piccolo, jeroboam or balthazar.
And knowing the specific sizes of each – and their unique names – is not only fascinating from a historical perspective, but also comes in very handy in pub quizzes.
While we might call any wine in a glass vessel a bottle, a ‘bottle’, in fact, only refers to 750ml. Bordeaux’s wine council, the CIVB, said 750ml was only set as the standard measure in 1866.
It is said former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill regularly drank two bottles of Champagne a day, although these were imperial pint-sized bottles, holding 568ml. These were available until 1973, when the UK joined the European Common Market.
Wine bottle sizes below 750ml
Britain’s exit from the EU in 2020 meant that, from 1 January 2024, still and sparkling wine could, for the first time, be sold in imperial pints of 568ml – though it is unlikely there will be much demand, given the costs to create such a bespoke bottle.
A more popular introduction from the 2024 legislation is allowing sparkling wine to be sold in 500ml bottles (previously only still wine was allowed in this format) and still wine in 200ml bottles (previously only sparkling). In Europe, sparkling wine is only available in 375ml, 750ml and multiples of 750ml bottles.
While 750ml bottles are the norm, holding 10 units of alcohol, smaller formats are popular for those watching their intake – or as convenient sizes for solo diners and at picnics and festivals, especially when in alternative glass packaging.
Piccolo/quarter/split/snipe/pony – 187.5ml or 200ml. Usually for Champagne.
Chopine – 250ml. Mainly in Bordeaux.
Half/demi/fillette – 375ml
Jennie – 500ml. Regularly used for sweet and/or wines such as Sauternes, Tokaj and Sherry. Called a demie or pinte in Champagne.
Clavelin – 620ml. A squat bottle, unique to the Jura’s Vin Jaune.
Larger formats
In wine bottle sizes, the next above the standard 750ml is the ever-popular magnum, effectively a ‘double bottle’, holding 1.5 litres.
Apart from adding some glitz to a dinner or special occasion, this larger format has an effect on the wine’s development – predominantly due to the greater ratio of wine to oxygen.
‘The evolution of the wine is slower [in magnum] and the integration of all aromas seems to be more harmonious,’ Michel Drappier, of Champagne Drappier, told Decanter ahead of a panel tasting examining differences between magnums and bottles.
After a magnum is the rare marie-jeanne or tregnum, holding 2.25 litres. This format is also known as a tappit hen, when the bottle is topped by a curved knob.
About the same height as a standard 750ml bottle but with a greater circumference in the body and a thicker neck, Port is most often bottled in this 2.25-litre format, though rarely used as the size and shape demands careful handling and storage.
Bottles from South Africa’s Kanonkop estate, ranging from a standard 750ml (far left) through a magnum, double magnum, methuselah, salmanazar, balthazar, nebuchadnezzar and melchizedek. Credit: Donald Nausbaum / Alamy
The big bottles
Once we reach three litres or more, the nomenclature of wine bottle sizes predominantly follows a biblical kings of Israel theme.
The reason for this is unclear, but it could be that the grand old ages or infamy these kings attained reflects the majestic sizes (and perhaps prices) of the bottles.
For most of the world, a jeroboam contains three litres, or the equivalent of four standard bottles. Bordeaux châteaux, however, refer to a three-litre bottle as a double magnum.
In Bordeaux, a jeroboam contains five litres, although it was 4.5 litres in the past. Burgundy and Champagne winemakers would refer to the 4.5-litre format as a rehoboam, equivalent to six standard bottles.
Beyond that, there are some tongue-twisting names to remember for the ultra-large wine bottle formats:
Methuselah – Six litres (eight standard bottles. Known as an imperial in Bordeaux.
Salmanazar/Mordechai – Nine litres (12 bottles)
Balthazar – 12 litres (16 bottles)
Nebuchadnezzar – 15 litres (20 bottles)
Melchior – 18 litres (24 bottles)
Solomon – 20 litres (26.6 bottles)
Sovereign – 22.5 litres (33 bottles)
Primato – 26.25 litres (35 bottles)
Primat/Goliath/Paramount – 27 litres (36 bottles)
Melchizedek/Midas – 30 litres (40 bottles)
The world’s largest wine bottle?
In 2004, Sotheby’s sold a 130-litre bottle of Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2001 for US$55,812 in a charity auction. Nicknamed ‘Maximus’, the bottle weighed 68kg when empty.
‘It would serve 600 people with a couple of glasses each,’ Serena Sutcliffe MW, the head of Sotheby’s international wine department at the time, told Decanter.com after the sale.
However, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world’s largest wine bottle, 4.17m tall, holds 3,094 litres. That’s the equivalent of 4,125 standard bottles.
Credited to Swiss car importer André Vogel, who commissioned the bottle to celebrate the opening of a new branch of his business, the record was ratified in Lyssach, Switzerland, on 20 October 2014.
Guinness recognises the world’s smallest bottles of wine, as being made by Steve Klein from Encino, California, in 1999, whose 3.4cm-tall hand-blown miniatures are corked, sealed and labelled to show that they contain 0.75ml of wine.