Wine Bottle Sizes Explained
Have you ever looked at a bottle of wine and wondered how many glasses you could get out of it? Whether this has crossed your mind while opening mini bottles in our Advent Calendars or when you’ve been contemplating a magnum for a special occasion, our guide to wine bottles sizes and how many servings you can get out of each will come in handy.
What are the different wine bottle sizes?
This ranges from small bottles that fit in the palm of your hand all the way up to mammoth bottles that are a whopping 13 and a half feet tall.
Realistically, in terms of what the average person is likely to drink at home or at an event, we’re talking no larger than magnums and double magnums in this guide.
Wine bottle sizes and names
Our diagram tells you everything you need to know at a quick glance, but we shall delve a little deeper into the different size bottles below, including how they came to be and when they tend to be used.
Larger bottles: origins, occasions and servings
The 1700s saw the invention of the wine bottle as we know it today. Winemakers started storing their wine in glass bottles for the first time, and the design was improved in 1740 to create an early version of the standard 750ml bottle we’re all very familiar with.
Around the 1750s, winemakers in Europe started experimenting with much larger bottle sizes to see how much wine they could squeeze in to one single bottle, which led to the invention of the magnum. It was the first of the supersized wine bottles and it went on to pave the way for the mind-bogglingly gigantic bottles we mentioned earlier.
A standard 750ml bottle of wine contains around five glasses or servings. A magnum contains 10 servings of wine, which is twice the amount you get in a standard bottle. So, magnums and double magnums (which, unsurprisingly, contain 20 servings) have become the bottles of choice at fancy parties and events.
Litre bottles only contain seven servings, and are a little harder to get hold of. You’re likely to come across them on winery tours and in specialist wine shops, and they’re a good size if you’re hosting a small dinner party.
Smaller bottles: origins, occasions and servings
We’re talking anything smaller than the standard 750ml bottle here. But why was it felt that there was a need for anything smaller than this? Well it can be traced back to the 1890s when Champagne houses wanted to give consumers a chance to sample a little taste of luxury to entice them to later buy the bigger bottles.
Half bottles (aka demi bottles) and pocket-sized mini bottles (aka splits or piccolos) became a big hit with wine merchants who wanted to allow their customers to sample lots of different wines, and were also popular in trendy bars and cafes across France. Containing only two and a half servings per bottle, a demi works well for two people who are looking to enjoy some wine together, while a mini is best for one person savouring a large glass of wine or two people sipping small tasting measures.
