🍷 Wine bottle sizes
Also known as: wine bottle sizes, wine bottle formats, champagne bottle sizes, bottle sizes chart, large format bottles, wine bottle volumes
Wine bottle sizes are a ladder of volumes from the 20 cl quart to the 30-litre Midas, built on the 0.75-litre standard bottle, with names such as magnum, Jeroboam and Methuselah.
Wine bottle sizes run on a ladder, from a 20 cl quart to a 30-litre Midas. The rung everybody counts from is the standard bottle of 0.75 litre: a Half bottle (0.375 l) is half of it and a Magnum is double.
The Comité Champagne spells the ladder out in bottles. After the magnum come the Jeroboam, 3 litres (4 bottles), and the Rehoboam at 4.5. Methuselah holds 6 litres, Salmanazar 9 and Balthazar 12. Nebuchadnezzar is 15, Salomon 18 and Sovereign 26.25. Primat takes 27, and Melchizedek, or Midas, 30 litres, about 240 glasses. The Comité says champagne is the one wine sold in so many formats.
Law is far more modest. The annex to Directive 2007/45/EC lists eight volumes for still wine, up to 1.5 litres. Sparkling wine gets five, from 125 ml to 1.5 litres. Nothing larger is named. One line stands alone: yellow wine, with a single volume of 620 ml, which is the Clavelin used in the Jura.
The biblical names are ornament. According to World Wide Words, nobody knows who coined them, and Methuselah, Salmanazar and Balthazar first appear in print in André Simon's 1935 dictionary. The practical question is ageing. A 2023 study compared magnums with standard bottles and found the larger bottle kept its dissolved CO2 much better. Everything here is part of the Wine bottle family.
Facts
| Bottle size | From 20 cl (quart) to 30 l (Melchizedek, Midas); standard 0.75 l 1 |
|---|---|
| Legal basis | Directive 2007/45/EC: still wine 100-1500 ml, sparkling 125-1500 ml; nothing larger 2 |
| In force since | 11 April 2009 3 |
| Mandatory status | EU sizes apply to wine; national sizes abolished 3 |
| Shelf life and storage conditions | Magnums retain dissolved CO2 better than 75 cl: 13 vintages, 25-47 years 4 |
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Wine bottle sizes → kind of → 🍷 Wine bottle ← packed in ← 🍷 Wine
Links
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Frequently asked questions
What is bigger than a magnum?
After the 1.5-litre magnum the Comité Champagne lists the Jeroboam, 3 litres, then Rehoboam 4.5, Methuselah 6, Salmanazar 9, Balthazar 12 and Nebuchadnezzar 15 litres.
How many bottles are in a Methuselah?
Eight standard bottles, which makes 6 litres. A Salmanazar is twelve bottles, 9 litres.
Does EU law cover big bottles?
The annex to Directive 2007/45/EC lists still wine up to 1.5 litres and sparkling wine up to 1.5 litres. Larger volumes are not on the list.
Is it true that the names come from kings who lived for ages?
No. They are mostly biblical kings and patriarchs, and according to World Wide Words nobody knows who chose them. They have nothing to do with how long the wine keeps.
What is a Midas bottle?
The Comité Champagne's name, shared with Melchizedek, for the 30-litre format. It is equal to 40 bottles and holds around 240 glasses.
Similar
🍷 Flute bottle (Hock) · 🍷 Punt (bottle) · 🍷 Bordeaux bottle · 🍷 Burgundy bottle · 🍷 Bocksbeutel · 🍷 Fiasco (bottle)
What it includes
Sources
- Comité Champagne. Factsheet Champagne Bottle Sizes
- Directive 2007/45/EC (nominal quantities for prepacked products), Annex: wine volumes
- European Commission. Pack sizes (legal metrology)
- Liger-Belair G. et al. Losses of Yeast-Fermented CO2 during Prolonged Champagne Aging: Yes, the Bottle Size Does Matter! ACS Omega 2023, 8(25)
- World Wide Words. Names of large wine bottles (Q&A)