Methuselah | schwingeninswitzerland

Before our travels, I had no idea that wine came in so many different sized bottles. Most of our visitors didn’t either. While you can find different sizes in other areas of the globe, these are the most common in France.

Demi (0.375 liters) – meaning “half” in French, this is also known as a “halfbottle”.

Standard (.750 liters) – I think most of us know what this one looks like. Many of us may have even had the opportunity to drink from one at some point. It holds about 6 glasses of wine, less if you have larger glasses.
Magnum (1.5 liters)– I’ll admit it, this one first came to my attention through rap songs. Essentially, this is two bottles.

Double Magnum (4.5 liters) –After exceeding the size of a Magnum, the sizes often have the names of biblical kings and other biblical figures. A double magnum is also known as “Jeroboam.” Being twice a magnum, this holds 4 bottles.
Rehoboam (4.5 liters) – This one holds 6 bottles.
Methuselah (6 liters) – this is known as “Imperial” in Burgundy, this bad boy holds 8 bottles.

Salmanazar (9 liters) – a slightly different shape of the same size is known as Mordechai. Why buy a case (12 bottles for you teetotalers) when you could buy a Mordechai?

Balthazar (12 liters) – Okay, if you want to get technical this guy was a wise man and not a king. It holds 16 bottles, now that’s a party.
Nebuchadnezzar (15 liters) – Also a wise man, not to be confused with a “wise guy.” It holds 20 bottles. When we saw it for the first time, we joked about buying one for aging when a child was born and saving it for their wedding. It seems that large.
Melchior (20 liters) – I didn’t even know this existed.

We saw some unusual shaped bottles here and there.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape makes a wavy bottle after one of the ancient ones found in its cellars.
Before the standardization of sizes, we saw many tucked away in cellars or on display in non-standard sizes. They used bottle bolds like the one below.