MDM Distribution
Boutique Wines From Around the World

Home
About MDM
Contact Us
News
About Wine

 

Site Directory


Wine Selections

 Deux Amis
  Dry Creek

 

 La Gondola
  California

 

 Milla Winery
  California


 Pendleton

  Alexander Valley
  Amador County


 Raymond Burr

 
Dry Creek


 Terra Bella

 
California

 



 About MDM


 
Consortium
 

 Consulting Services
 

 National Sales
 

 Strategic Marketing
 

 Why Choose MDM?

 

 The MDM Model

 

 Marketing Small
 Brands

Legal Bottle Sizes
for Wine in
The United Sates

In the United States, other legal bottle sizes include 50 ml, 100 ml, 187 ml, 375 ml, 1 liter, 1.5 liter and 3 liter. Wine may also be bottled in sizes larger than 3 liters if the capacity is in even liter sizes-4 liters, 5 liters, 6 liters, etc.

Magnum
A simple name, this is the Latin term for "large". It's 1.5 liters of wine.

Marie-Jean
Named after a wine enthusiast from the 1700s. This is 2.25 liters of wine.

 

Wine Bottle Sizes

As well as the traditional (in many cases, legally required) 750ml bottle (the standard size to be found on supermarket and wine merchants shelves), and the useful half-bottle (containing 375ml of wine), there are a number of legally permitted 'large format' bottles. Many of these are named after biblical kings The same name may be used to refer to different size bottles in different regions of France.

Burgundy & Champagne
Bottle Sizes
Bordeaux Wine
Bottle Sizes
Approved Sizes in U.S. Size Bottle
Equivalents
Piccolo Piccolo Yes .187 ML 1/4
Demi Demi Yes 375 ML 1/2
50cl Bottle 50cl Bottle  No* 500ML 2/3
Standard Standard Yes 750ML 1
Magnum Magnum Yes 1.5L 2
- Marie-Jeanne No 2.25L 3
Jéroboam Double magnum Yes 3.0L 4
Rehoboam Jéroboam   4.5L 6
Methusaleh Impériale Yes 6.0L 8
Salmanazar - no 9.0L 12
Balthazar - Yes 12.0L 16
Nebuchadnezzar - no 15.0L 20
Melchior Melchior Yes 18.0L 24
Solomon Solomon Yes 20.0L 28
Sovereign Sovereign No 25.0L 33 1/3
Primat Primat No 27.0L 36
Melchizedek Melchizedek Yes 30.0L 40

*Approved for domestic wines but not imported wines, so you may see Ports in this size.

Other regions of France, Europe, and the New World also bottle some wine in large formats, particularly magnums. For larger bottlings, most tend to follow the Burgundy terminology, and consequently some Jéroboams (four bottles) may be found. The Bordeaux terminology seems quite restricted to that region alone. Large format bottles are popular with Bordeaux collectors, particularly the eight-bottle Impériale. This is because the small amount of air in the bottle (between the cork and the wine) and a large amount of wine results in a small air:wine ratio, and this would seem to favour slow development of the wine when compared with smaller formats. The same cannot be said of large format bottles of Champagne, as these are really only for show, and in general, other than the commonly encountered magnums, they are filled using wine poured from single 750ml bottles prior to sale.

There are a few other bottle sizes permitted, although none have individual names, unlike the formats above. The only other commonly encountered size is the 500ml bottle, used for some Ports designed for drinking young, and Tokay, the famous sweet wine of Hungary.

   

MDM Global Services| MDM Vacations  | Girls Time Off

MDM Distribution © 2002 | Site Developed by MDM Global Services