Wine Bottles

I struggled for years to get to grips with this subject, and then I found a mnemonic. There's a clean version and a somewhat sleazy version:

Clean	Sleazy	Bottle size - Name	Bottles	Litres
Michael	Michael	Magnum	2	1.5
Jackson,	Jackson	Jeroboam	4	3
Rich	Really	Rehoboam	6	4.5
Man,	Makes	Methuselah	8	6
Sings	Small	Salmanazar	12	9
Baaaad	Boys	Balthazar	16	12
Notes	Nervous	Nebuchadnezzar	20	15

This is great as far as it goes. There are bigger bottles than this – see below – but this is probably far enough for most quizzes.

You just need to remember where the number of bottles starts going up in fours rather than twos; my suggestion is just to remember that there's no 10–bottle bottle – and that's the first even number that's missing.

But in fact, this is only part of the story. The trouble is that every country has a different system, and all of the major French regions have different systems. The table above is for champagne - but this is invariably the one you'll get asked about, even if the question doesn't actually say so.

If in doubt, my advice is:

•	When setting questions, always refer explicitly to Champagne
•	When answering questions, assume that the question setter is referring to champagne (clearly this will not always work – the question setter may be as confused as the next person – but it's the safest option)

Here's the full list for champagne:

	Bottles	Litres
Piccolo	¼	0.1875
Demi	½	0.375
Standard	1	0.75
Magnum	2	1.5
Jeroboam	4	3
Rehoboam	6	4.5
Methuselah	8	6
Salmanazar	12	9
Balthazar	16	12
Nebuchadnezzar	20	15
Melchior	24	18
Solomon	24	18
Sovereign	35	26.25
Primat or Goliath	36	27
Melchizedek or Midas	40	30

Note the five largest sizes, which aren't covered by the mnemonic. They are hardly ever asked in quizzes, and it's debatable whether it's worth remembering them - particularly as some of them have two names, there are too many Ms and too many Ss, and the numbers are confusing as well.

I did once hear it asked what was the biggest size of champagne bottle; the answer given was Methuselah.

For comparison, here is the list for the three main French regions:

	Champagne	Burgundy	Bordeaux	Litres
Piccolo	¼	n/a	n/a	0.1875
Chopine	n/a	n/a	1/3	0.25
Demi	½	½	½	0.375
Standard	1	1	1	0.75
Magnum	2	2	2	1.5
Marie Jean(ne)	n/a	n/a	3	2.25
Double Magnum	n/a	n/a	4	3
Jeroboam	4	4	6	3 or 4.5
Rehoboam	6	6	n/a	4.5
Imperial	n/a	n/a	8	6
Methuselah	8	8	n/a	6
Salmanazar	12	12	n/a	9
Balthazar	16	16	16	12
Nebuchadnezzar	20	20	20	15
Melchior	24	24	24	18
Solomon	24	n/a	n/a	18
Sovereign	35	n/a	n/a	26.25
Primat (Goliath)	36	n/a	n/a	27
Melchizedek (Midas)	40	n/a	n/a	30

You will notice that Burgundy is pretty much the same as Champagne, except that there is no quarter bottle and nothing over 18 litres. Bordeaux, on the other hand, is different ...

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Wine Bottles