A Comprehensive Guide to Wine Bottle Sizes

Split, Demi, Standard. Litre, Magnum, Double Magnum, Jeroboam. Methuselah, Salmanazar, Balthazar, Nebuchadnezzar. Melchior, Solomon, Sovereign, Goliath. 

Melchizedek. 

A Methuselah is a.k.a. an ‘Imperial.’ A Goliath a ‘Primat,’ and Melchizedek a ‘Midas’.

There you are. In so many names, all the vessels you need for consuming the world of wine.

Except now you're wondering what these terms mean by way of liquid volumes and how many servings they distribute upon pouring.

Ready?

• 187.5 ml Piccolo or Split: For Champagne, mostly, and mostly for those who routinely risk dying of thirst.

• 375 ml Demi or Half: Holds one-half of the standard 750 ml bottle size. Common for Champagne but also still wines. Also for those who routinely risk dying of thirst.

• 750 ml Standard: Your classic bottle format. Here, less of the above risk is run. 

• 1 L Litre: You get the idea. Preferable to a bottle by 250ml. 

• 1.5 L Magnum: Two standards make one. Feeling good, now. 

• 3.0 L Double Magnum: As it says on the tin; two magnums or 4 x 750 ml bottles.

• 4.5 L Jeroboam: Now you’re getting this party started. Equivalent to three magnums, then, or six standard 750 ml bottles. (N.B. for sparkling wines a Jeroboam is 3L)

• 4.5 L Rehoboam: A sparkling wine vessel comprising 6 x 750 ml bottles.

• 6.0 L Methuselah: Equivalent to eight standard 750 ml bottles or two double magnums. Alias ‘Imperial’. 

• 9.0 L Salmanazar: Impress the room with a dozen x 750 ml bottles in one – read: a full case of wine.

• 12.0 L Balthazar: Add four more bottles to get one of these. Sixteen x 750 ml bottles or two Imperials.

• 15.0 L Nebuchadnezzar: Formidable. Twenty x 750 ml bottles.

• 18.0 L Solomon: (a.k.a. Melchoir) Finally, a single, insuperable, full-twenty-four-750ml- bottles – i.e. two cases of wine – gargantuan bottle. 

• 25 L Sovereign: Keep going – Whoah, Daddy! Thirty-three standard bottles.

• 27 L Goliath (a.k.a. Primat): Add three more to the above. Should’ve hired a small crane.

• 30 L Melchizedek (a.k.a. Midas): The big four-o. You’re gonna need a bigger crane. 

I know what else you’re wondering, so allow me to do the maths: one ‘Midas’ will pour just over one 175ml glass for each of your 171 closest friends. 

And here’s the other thing about big formats: the larger the vessel, the longer its wine takes to mature. This owes to the lack of oxygen ingress relative to liquid volume. In other words, as there’s more wine in there than oxygen can get to at the normal rate, that Salmanazar of top-end Pauillac turning up in Granddad’s will might even see you pushing up daisies before it’s ready to give up its cork. 

But above all, it’s the ‘wow!’ factor: their sheer stature is mighty impressive in any socio-culinary setting. In fact, venture deeper into Jeroboam country and that ‘wow!’ factor soon becomes a ‘whoah!’ factor. For what could look more inviting, or more strongly signal impending conviviality than this greater glass vessel in our midst? Good times will roll.  

And so will they roll at your next social event, once you explore and select from Mr.Wheeler’s monumental range of magnums and large formats. 

Choose from (mostly) magnums, double-magnums, Jeroboams and a Methuselah, and give your guests plenty to party about.