By Sienna Serrao
To all that argue about whether a standard glass of wine is 4 or 5 ounces, or whether a standard bottle has 4, 5 or 6 glasses in it, we are here to clear it all up for you! Let’s talk about wine in a few different measurements.
What is a Standard Glass of Wine?
First and foremost, lets talk about a standard glass of wine.
The USDA defines a Standard pour of table wine to be 5 ounces, and a Standard pour of dessert wine to be only 3.5 ounces. This may look deceiving small, especially when a standard white wine glass can hold between 8 and 12 ounces, and a standard red wine glass can hold between 8 and 22 ounces.
So, with that being said, the number of wine glasses you can serve from a single bottle depends on how heavy you pour as well as the size of the bottle.
Now Let Us Talk Wine Bottle Sizes
As many of you know already or could easily figure out just by reading the label, a standard wine bottle from the grocery or liquor store is 750 milliliters. Although this is the most commonly seen, wine comes in several other sized bottles!
The smallest of the wine bottles is known as the Split or Piccolo, which is 187.5 milliliters, a quarter (1/4) of a standard bottle, and holds just one glass of wine. This perfect single serving bottle is almost always seen being used for sparkling wines.
The next size up is referred to as the Half or Demi bottle. The Demi holds 375 milliliters of wine, which is half of a standard bottle and pours roughly 2.5 glasses. This size bottle is perfect for sharing a smaller, healthy portion of wine with one other person.
Moving up, we’ve got the Half-liter or Jennie. This bottle consists of 500 milliliters of wine, around 2/3 of a standard bottle filling approximately 3 glasses of wine. Most often sweet wines come in bottles of this size.
Finally, we have reached the Standard bottle, which again is 750 milliliters of wine, and is the size that all the other bottles have been compared to. There are approximately five of our standard 5-ounce glasses in this trusty bottle. This is the bottle size you will find in all of our wine of the month club shipments.
Next on the list is the Liter bottle. As you could guess from the name, this bottle holds a liter of wine, which is a standard bottle plus 1/3, and around 7 glasses of wine. These are often a better deal of wine to price and have become increasingly popular and known for holding European wines.
Following the Liter is the Magnum bottle, standing at 1.5 Liters, holding 2 standard bottles and 10 standard glasses of wine. The Magnum is a wine collectors preferred size when collecting age worthy red wines to add to their cellar. These bottles are also known for their appealing and dramatic visual effect when served at gatherings and parties.
The next wine bottle sizes are fun facts to know and quiz your friends on, but you are a lot less likely to see them at your local grocery or liquor store, so we are going to list them quickly:
Jeroboam or Double Magnum: 3 Liters of wine, 4 Standard bottles, and 20 glasses.
Rehoboam: 4.5 Liters of wine, 6 Standard bottles, and 30 glasses.
Methuselah or Imperial: 6 Liters of wine, 8 Standard bottles, and 40 glasses.
Salmanazar: 9 Liters of wine, 12 Standard bottles, and 60 glasses.
Balthazar: 12 Liters of wine, 16 Standard bottles, and 80 glasses.
Nebuchadnezzar: 15 Liters of wine, 20 Standard bottles, and 100 glasses.
Melchior: 18 Liters of wine, 24 Standard bottles, and 120 glasses.
Solomon: 20 Liters of wine, 26 Standard bottles, and 130 glasses.
Sovereign: 26 Liters of wine, 35 Standard bottles, and 175 glasses.
Primat or Goliath: 27 Liters of wine, 36 Standard bottles, and 180 glasses.
Melchizedek or Midas: 30 Liters of wine, 40 Standard bottle, and 200 glasses of wine.
Of course bottles can be bought individually, but they can also be bought in cases. To make this simpler, we are going to stick to what is standard. A standard case of wine holds 12 Standard (or 750 milliliter) bottles. This equates to 9 Liters and 2.3 gallons of wine.
How Much Wine to Get Drunk
Now for a more fun, but also helpful question, how much wine does it take to become drunk? There have been multiple answers floating around with some experts basing it off of weight and others by gender, typically implying the weight factor, so we will give you both!
For anyone less than 250 pounds, two 5-ounce pours of wine consumed in an hour will make you legally drunk. Since its more common for males to weigh more than 250 pounds, some experts say men can have three glasses in an hour, while women should only have two before becoming legally intoxicated.
Well there you have it, all your wine pouring, glass, and bottle size questions answered! Remember to enjoy your wine, and have fun drinking, but be safe while consuming and don’t drive if you have had more than two glasses in an hour. Cheers!