what gives with these wack-job terms? sounds like the naming sessions came after a few too many jeroboams of brut if u ask me. maybe this has some correlation to other idiosynchrosis of these chain-smoking non-showering jerry lewis-loving folk. anybody have any ideas?
Amazingly enough, 25.4 ounces is just about exactly 750 mililiters. If you look around in a liquor store, all wine is sold in 750 ml bottles. All the other sizes you list relate to this (ie, a magnum is 2 bottles, 1500 ml, 50.8 fluid oz.)
First off- now I really want to throw a big party, just so I can call up a beverage supplier and request a “Nebuchadnezzar of champagne, my good man!”
Okay, SWAG here.
Most of the names beyond the term “Magnum” are Biblical in nature (ancient Kings, etc.). Given that wineries (and, by direct extension, the producers of champagne) of medeval times were run by monks, it seems only fitting that they gave Biblical names to various quantities of wine and champagne. More modern wine producers kept with the old names out of A) a sense of tradition and B) an unwillingness to confuse customers (“So you’re sending me a Salmanazar of your Merlot, right?” “Yes, sir, 9 liters.” “I didn’t want 9 liters, I wanted 12 bottles!” “Er…”).
As a further note- Magnum seems close to “Magnus” or “Great” (in the large sense), so I’d assume that a Magnum bottle just means “A Really Big Bottle” in the same way that a Magnum pistol means “A Really Big Gun”.
John Corrado’s explanation does not fully satisfy me. Why would those Biblical names be chosen in particular? Is there any connection between those historical figures and wine (in the Bible?) I would expect to see a bottle called the “Noah” then. As far as I remember, the person usually credited with inventing the method of creating sparkling wine is the benedictine monk Dom Pérignon from the abbaye in Hauvillers (beginning of 18th century). The names for bottles however may very well date from before that, since I’ve heard those names being used for non-sparkling wines, but probably not as far back as the Middle Ages I would think.
I’m sure it’s just style. They could have named them after military ranks or classes of angles. Biblical kings has a certain timeless class, and it’s independent of country. Those big bottles are impressive – I’ve seen them at wineries, and at some of the wine shops here in Boston.
Once again I post while trying to write code, and end up missing the question altogether. I thought the OP was wondering why the sizes themselves weren’t logical. I didn’t even see the names. Guess working at a wine store in my youth made “Nebuchadnezzar” part of my normal vocabulary.
biblical kings u say? well, at least i now kno where those crazy names are from, unfortunetly i still see very little connection. i found some information on champagne here
sez champagne is more or less invented by dom pernignon, bubbles were an accident because of the weather in that part of france blah blah, but most interestingly is that champgne was just another kind of wine for a while. so did wine once use the same units? maybe there a connection there.
anyway, thanks for all your help allready, those nutball french