Salmanazar and Nebuchadnezzar? Aren’t those biblical kings and what do they have to do with wine? We have seen a magnum of wine. It’s equal to 2 standard bottles of wine and says “Let’s get this party started”. If you really want to party though, you get a Nebuchadnezzar of wine. That is the largest wine bottle made and is equal to 20 standard bottles of wine. Why they are named after biblical kings is much speculated on either having to do with the order of the kings or the value of wine in biblical society. In addition to looking cool, there are some practical reasons for large wine bottles. Larger bottles have a smaller surface to air ratio which causes more consistent aging of the wine. The downside is they are heavy to pour from and there can be quite the temperature difference between the outside of the wine near the glass and the center of the wine in the bottle. The 750 ml bottle is the standard size for wine and holds approx. 4 glasses of wine.
Wine Bottle Sizes Chart
187.5 ml Piccolo or Split: Typically used for a single serving of Champagne.
375 ml Demi or Half: Holds one-half of the standard 750 ml size.
750 ml Standard: Common bottle size for most distributed wine.
1.5 L Magnum: Equivalent to two standard 750 ml bottles.
3.0 L Double Magnum: Equivalent to two Magnums or four standard 750 ml bottles.
4.5 L Jeroboam (still wine): Equivalent to six standard 750 ml bottles.
6.0 L Imperial: Equivalent to eight standard 750 ml bottles or two Double Magnums.
9.0 L Salmanazar: Equivalent to twelve standard 750 ml bottles or a full case of wine!
12.0 L Balthazar: Equivalent to sixteen standard 750 ml bottles or two Imperials.
15.0 L Nebuchadnezzar: Equivalent to twenty standard 750 ml bottles.