🍷 Clavelin

The clavelin is a 62 cl bottle that holds only vin jaune, the yellow wine of the French Jura. That is 13 cl less than a standard bottle, and the gap is deliberate. No other wine may be sold in it under the appellation rules.

The figure has a story. According to the Château-Chalon specification, 62 cl is what is left of one litre of wine after six years in a barrel that is never topped up. The rest evaporates. The wine is meant to age that way, the Jura wine board says, for at least six years and three months in oak. A layer of yeast, called the voile, grows on top and shields the wine from oxidation.

The grape matters too. Château-Chalon allows only Savagnin, and four appellations may carry the name vin jaune: Château-Chalon, Arbois, L'Étoile and Côtes du Jura. Some bottles are over a century old, and the oldest one tasted dates from 1774.

The shape itself is old. The specification mentions the glassworks at Vieille Loye, where clavelins were once blown by hand under a privilege granted by Marguerite of Burgundy in 1506. Today the glass is moulded with the appellation's own mark. Compare other sizes at Wine bottle sizes, read about the wine at Vin jaune, and among other bottle shapes there is the Rhine bottle.