“We shared a bottle of wine” seems innocent enough for a gathering of 2-3 people. Sure, if it was one of those standard bottles of wine. The 750ml standard bottle is available pretty much everywhere from liquor stores, grocery stores, the gas n’ sip, or even at Costco. But what if the bottle was actually a Nebuchadnezzar? A Nebuchadnezzar holds 15 liters of wine; the equivalent of 20 of those standard bottles. Now that sounds like a party!
In the world of wine bottles, there are crazy cool names for all the different sizes. Well, except for the standard or normal 750ml bottle of wine that doesn’t even rate a boring name. So, let’s get on with the cool ones while having sympathy for the normal, standard bottle.
Twice the standard bottle is a Magnum or 1.5 liters of deliciousness. Most high-end restaurants carry Magnums, as they are associated with celebrations and special occasions. In particular, champagnes and sparkling wines come in big bottle formats for the extra celebration. And if you are on a yacht, you can be extra and open your magnum of champs with a saber!
Next up is the jeroboam, but it has a bit of an identity crisis. The jeroboam of wine or champagne is typically a double magnum coming in at 3 liters, or 4 standard bottles. But in Bordeaux, they like their jeroboams to be 5 liters or 6 2/3 of standard bottles. Given how tasty their wine is, I am always good for more; sometimes more is more. And then you have Burgundy, one of the few places paying respect to the standard bottle with their Jeroboams coming in at an uncooperative 3.78 liters, but a clean 5 normal bottles worth.
As we move up in liters and standard bottle equivalents, we have the
Rehoboam with 4.5 liters / 6 standard bottles,
Methuselah is 6 liters / 8 standard bottles,
Salmanazar with 9 liters / 12 standard bottles,
Balthazar with 12 liters / 16 standard bottles,
Nebuchadnezzar with 15 liters / 20 standard bottles, and
Melchizedek with 30 liters / 40 standard bottles.
At some point wine bottles of this size have just gotten ridiculous; we have left wine connoisseurship and entered the realm of wine insanity. Let’s pick on the Salmanazar’s 9-liter size for a second. A single bottle typically weighs in at 16 – 18 pounds, and then when you add the weight of the wine, it is north of 30 pounds. That would be awkward to bench press!
So now that I went there on weight, here is a fun fact for you: water weighs more than alcohol. So, the percentage of alcohol in a particular wine can impact the cost of shipping and storage. The liquid makes up around 60% of the weight of the full bottle.
So, what size bottle will you have for your next party?