Some of the wineries, winemakers, and topics we have covered over the years for Wine Tributaries often find their way as links on other wine sites. We decided to include some as a way to pay tribute to the wines and people who who have shaped the wine industry.

Bigger Is Better in Wine
by Tim Hayes & John Koetzner

In the United States we often think bigger is better - houses,
cars, NFL linemen - and in the case of wine, it’s pretty much true. Wines
tend to have a greater shelf life if they are in larger bottles. But why
should that be true?

Bottle aging, which is anaerobic (oxygen-free), is one of the reasons
that people put wine in a cellar and let it age. It continues to develop
and mature, allowing the complexities of wine to assemble, and in the long
run make wine consumption much more pleasant.

When you go to a restaurant, you probably notice that the sommelier
or waiter will present the bottle to your prior to opening it. Not only is
it done to confirm that the proper wine is about to be opened, but it is
meant for you to inspect the fill level. A high fill level means less
oxygen and the potential for a good wine that will show less signs of
oxidation. A wine that has a low fill, at the bottom of the neck, may be
of questionable quality. Definitely suspect is a wine that is filled only
to the shoulders in the bottle.

That space between the wine and the cork is called ullage. As wines
go through the aging process, the ullage has a direct impact on the aging
potential for a wine. That’s why a larger bottle has better aging
potential; the wine has less surface area contact to the ullage than it
does in a smaller bottle.

While a split bottle (375 milliliter) is convenient for two people to
have a glass of wine, you will not usually find people collecting cases of
split bottles. However, many wineries do use this size for bottling
dessert wines and ports, and those wines often have a little longer
longevity due to residual sweetness or fortification.

Earlier in this decade, a new size bottle was accepted by the BATF, a
half-liter bottle (500ml), but it was given a number of restrictions. For
the most part it has been marketed in a similar way as the split bottle,
typically for restaurants. Locally, Jordan Winery, Geyser Peak, and
Pedroncelli Winery are a few of the wineries that have released wines in
this bottle size.
Standard wine bottles hold 750 milliliters of wine and they are used
for red, white, rose, and sparkling wines. However, sparkling wine bottles
appear to be larger than standard because they are made of thicker glass
to withstand the pressures from the carbonation.

The next size bottle typically used for wine is the magnum,
equivalent to two standard bottles, and it holds 1.5 liters of wine.
Following in size is the double magnum (called a Jeroboam for sparkling
wine), and it holds three liters of wine or the equivalent to four
standard bottles. Although they have different shapes, the Imperial and
the Methuselah both hold six liters of wine, which would equal eight
standard bottles.
Wine collectors, those folks who show up at wine auctions and charity
functions where special wine lots are put up for bid, will often be the
clientele for these larger sized bottles. They will even look for bigger
bottles such as the Salmanazar (nine liters of wine or the equivalent to a
case of wine), the Balthazar (twelve liters of wine or sixteen standard
bottles), or the Nebuchadnezzar (which ranges from thirteen to fifteen
liters depending on the country of the wine’s origin). Recently, Au Bon
Climat got $12,000.00 for a five liter Pinot Noir that was auctioned at
charity event at a Sonoma-Cutrer event, which gives an idea of the serious collector’s tastes.

While we know that bigger bottles let wine age more gracefully, it is
obvious that not everyone can afford or has the space for larger bottles.
Plus, purchasing wine should be based on the type of usage a person
usually has, and the larger bottles usually signify something more akin to
collecting.

For our purposes, we find splits as a party for one, standard bottles as a party for two, a magnum as a party for four, and a double magnum as a dinner party. One can have a whole house party with an Imperial, a work party with the Balthazar, and a block party with a Nebuchadnezzar. Yes, size does make a difference. If you want optimum aging, bigger is better. Yet, bottle size should fit your purposes and your cellar.