A simple guide to wine bottle sizes.
Why are there different wine bottle sizes? what differentiates them? and is it important?
If you’re in the ideas or planning stages of building a wine cellar, it is important to understand all of the different components.
One of these components is your wine collection, in particular, the size of your own bottles.
Below we’ve highlighted a simple guide to wine bottle sizes, so you can be informed and account for any roadblocks that might head your way before the build.
02/17/2022
The different wine bottle sizes.
Go Taste Wine put together a comprehensive table outlining wine bottle sizes, their names and each of their capacities. Take a look below:
A brief history of the wine bottle.
Wine bottle sizes and shapes began to change once people realised the significance of the cork, in allowing wine to age.
The next discovery came when people noticed that bigger bottles could change the taste of wine.
The larger bottle also was found to allow the wine to age over a longer duration of time, in comparison to the standard size bottles back then.
We’ve come a long way since the mid 1700’s, to form the variety of shapes and sizes we now see across vineyards all around the world.
Little known facts.
- Wine from larger bottles develop slower, and some argue build more complexity, than wine from smaller bottles. This is generally due to there being less air between the cork and the surface of the wine.
- Each wine bottle size has their own name, uniquely taken from Biblical characters, such as;
- Jeroboam: “First King of The Kingdom”
- Methuselah: “Oldest Man”
- Salmanzar: “Assyrian King”
Why it’s important to understand wine bottle sizes.
There are a few reasons why a collector should understand bottle sizes. The first of course is wine bottle capacity.
The practice of consuming wine from your collection, requires a bit of strategy. By that we mean, knowing how much wine you would usually require for a sitting.
One bottle? Two bottles? Understand your wine bottles sizes and their capacity properly, and you’ll benefit from having an organized wine collection.
More importantly, certain wine racking styles work better for different wine bottle sizes.
Understanding the different sizes of wine bottles will ensure your wine cellar has the capacity you need to store them.
Work with experts.
If you’re weighing up options for your custom wine cellar build, work with the Heritage Vine team as we're specialists in understanding your space and the collection you’re investing in.
Wine bottle sizes, shapes and everything in between, comes as second nature for our team of experts.
Our combined experience in building wine cellars, makes us confident in your project and our ability to carry it out with ease.
