REFERENCE
Every format at a glance — millilitres, how many standard bottles it holds, and how many glasses you'll pour. A standard 750ml bottle is about five glasses.
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Glasses assume a 150ml (5oz) pour — the standard restaurant serving.
| Format | Volume | Standard bottles | Glasses | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piccolo / Split | 187.5 ml | ¼ bottle | 1 | Single-serve sparkling — the mini Champagne bottle. |
| Demi / Half | 375 ml | ½ bottle | 2–3 | Dessert wine, or a bottle for one or two. |
| Standard | 750 ml | 1 bottle | 5 | The default wine bottle — about five glasses. |
| Magnum | 1.5 L | 2 bottles | 10 | Ages more slowly; the classic dinner-party format. |
| Jeroboam (still) | 3 L | 4 bottles | 20 | Also called a Double Magnum in Bordeaux. |
| Rehoboam | 4.5 L | 6 bottles | 30 | A Champagne large format. |
| Methuselah / Imperial | 6 L | 8 bottles | 40 | Imperial in Bordeaux, Methuselah in Champagne. |
| Salmanazar | 9 L | 12 bottles | 60 | A full case of wine in one bottle. |
| Balthazar | 12 L | 16 bottles | 80 | Ceremonial; needs two people to pour. |
| Nebuchadnezzar | 15 L | 20 bottles | 100 | One of the largest commonly produced formats. |
How many bottles do I need?
Five glasses a bottle is the rule of thumb. Let the calculators do the exact maths for your headcount, and work out how far ahead to open and chill each one.
A standard 750ml bottle holds about five glasses, based on a 150ml (5oz) pour. A magnum (1.5L) is double that at roughly ten glasses, and a half bottle (375ml) gives you two to three. Restaurant tasting pours are smaller, so you'll get more from a bottle if you're pouring 3oz samples.
A magnum is 1.5 litres — exactly two standard 750ml bottles. Beyond its size, a magnum ages more slowly than a standard bottle because there's less oxygen relative to the volume of wine, which is why collectors prize magnums for long-term cellaring.
From standard up: Standard (750ml), Magnum (1.5L), Jeroboam / Double Magnum (3L), Rehoboam (4.5L), Methuselah / Imperial (6L), Salmanazar (9L), Balthazar (12L), and Nebuchadnezzar (15L). Most of the large formats are named after Biblical kings.
The two regions adopted the large-format naming separately, so a few sizes overlap under different names. The clearest example is the 3L bottle: it's a Double Magnum or Jeroboam in Bordeaux, while Champagne and Burgundy use Jeroboam for a 4.5L bottle. The 6L is an Imperial in Bordeaux and a Methuselah in Champagne. The capacities in the chart above follow the most widely cited convention.
Work backwards from glasses: five per standard bottle. For a dinner of eight where everyone has two to three glasses, that's four to five bottles. Our free wine calculator does the maths for any headcount, and the serving calculator tells you how far ahead to open and chill each bottle.
Know what to open tonight — and never miss a wine at its peak.
From a split to a Nebuchadnezzar, Saignée tracks every bottle you own and tells you when each one is at its peak.
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