wine bottles

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms formerly recognized 16 bottle sizes for domestic American wine and 27 sizes for imports. That ended on January 1, 1975, when metric sizing was introduced, becoming mandatory on January 1, 1979. Except for “magnum,” the names of the sizes are not allowed to appear on the label.

New size	Capacity	Corresponds to old size
Miniature	100 mL	miniature
Small	187 mL	split
Medium	375 mL	tenth
Regular	750 mL	fifth
Large	1 liter	quart
Magnum	1.5 liter	magnum
Extra Large	3 liter	jeroboam

Some of the traditional names for wine bottle sizes are given under champagne, bordeaux, and port. The larger sizes, especially those with the Biblical names, are mostly a novelty produced in very small numbers.

Bordeaux

The traditional sizes of Bordeaux bottles:

Size	Capacity
Fillette	½ bottle
Magnum	2 bottles
Marie-jeanne	3 bottles
Double magnum	4 bottles
Jéroboam	6 bottles
Impérial (called a rehoboam in the U. K.)	about 8 bottles

Champagne

Nowadays champagne is bottled in the same sizes as other wines; in the United States, by order of the federal government. The traditional bottle sizes were:

Size	Capacity	Current understanding
Split	¼ bottle
Pint	½ bottle
Quart	800 mL, the old “bottle of champagne”
Magnum	2 bottles
Jéroboam	4 bottles	750mL × 4 = 3 liters
Rehoboam	6 bottles
Methuselah	8 bottles
Salamanzar	10, sometimes 12 bottles
Balthazar	16 bottles
Nebuchadnezzar	20 bottles

Port

Name	Capacity
Quart	757.5 mL
Magnum	2 bottles
Tappet hen	3 bottles
Jéroboam	4 bottles