From Magnums to Minis: Wine Bottle Sizes Explained
Learn your mini’s from your magnum’s, your methuselah’s from your Nebuchadnezzar's.
Our guide to wine bottle sizes is your go to guide for the names of the different bottle sizes, where the names come from and the history of the wine bottle.
Wine Bottle Sizes Chart
Split / Mini / Piccolo - 187.5ml
A single glass of wine or Champagne.
Equivalent to a quarter of a standard bottle.
This is most often used for Champagne and other sparkling wine styles.
Half / Demi - 375ml
2/3 Glasses
The name is very self explanatory - it is half the liquid of a standard size wine bottle.
Restaurants offer a variety of wines in half bottle size as they are ideal for sharing.
Standard - 750ml / 0.75L
6 Glasses
Universal bottle size around the world for wine & Champagne since the 1970s.
Magnum - 1.5L
12 Glasses
Double the size of a standard bottle.
A magnum of wine or Champagne is great for ageing as the right amount of wine is exposed to oxidation in the air.
Jeroboam - 3L
24 Glasses
Often called a double magnum, this is 4 standard bottles or 2 magnum bottles.
Hard to pour in your wine glass but a real centrepiece!
Rehoboam - 4.5L
36 Glasses
6 standard wine bottles
This size is usually reserved for Champagne.
Imperial / Methusaleh - 6L
48 Glasses
8 standard wine bottles
Mainly used for Champagne and a few wines from Bordeaux.
Salmanazar - 9L
72 Glasses
12 standard wine bottles
This large wine bottle can serve a party of 40-50 guests. Commonly used for wines from Burgundy, Bordeaux & Champagne.
Balthazar - 12L
96 Glasses
16 standard wine bottles
Typically just over 2ft tall
Nebuchadnezzar - 15L
120 Glasses
20 standard wine bottles
Melchior - 18L
144 Glasses
24 standard wine bottles
Solomon - 20L
160 Glasses
26 standard wine bottles
Sovereign - 25L
208 Glasses
34.7 standard wine bottles
Goliath / Primat - 27L
216 Glasses
36 standard wine bottles
Midas / Melchizedek - 30L
240 Glasses
40 standard bottles
This is the largest format of wine bottle you can find and is quite rare. Weighing around 70kg it takes multiple people to pour.
A Brief History of Wine Bottle Sizes
The 1700s saw the invention of the wine bottle as we know it today.
Until the 1970s the size of wine bottles would vary between 700ml and 800ml. It was at this point that European nations followed by the US and Canada, standardised bottle sizes, agreeing on a volume of 750ml or 75cl.
Before this point bottles used to hold 700-800ml, mostly 730ml – the average capacity of a man’s lung or a fifth of a gallon, the standard size for wine and liquor in Anglo-Saxon countries. Before they were industrially made, ‘fifth’ bottles could be created by glass blowers in one blow, and so this size was adopted as standard in the glass bottle industry.
Names of the Different Sizes of Wine Bottle
Traditional different-sized wine bottles have been named after Biblical kings and historical figures. No one is quite sure when the names were given.
Jeroboam - The First Biblical King of the northern kingdom of Israel
Methuselah - The Oldest Man in the Bible
Salmanzar - An Assyrian King
Balthazar - One of the Three Wise Men
Nebuchadnezzar - The longest ruling King of Babylon
Melchior - The oldest of the biblical Magi
Solomon - King Solomon, the wisest of all men, built the Temple in Jerusalem
Melchizedek - Meaning "king of righteousness", the King of Salem