Wine bottle sizes have wonderfully creative and often biblical names although when or who named them is lost in the mists of time. Below is a listing of the common and uncommon ones:

• Split or Piccolo: 187.5 mL or one-quarter of a standard 750 mL bottle. Usually used for sparkling wines. Piccolo means little or small in Italian and is the smallest standard wine bottle.
• Half Bottle or Demi: 375 mL or a half of a standard 750 mL bottle. Demi is half or less than whole in Latin.
• Standard: 750 mL This is the most common size for a wine bottle.
• Magnum: 1.5 liters or two standard bottles. Magnum comes from the Latin meaning great or large.
• Double Magnum: 3 liters or four standard bottles.
• Jeroboam: 3 liters for Champagne and Burgundy bottles or 4.5-5 liters for Bordeaux bottles. The volume difference between the varietals is historically unclear, but Bordeaux wines continually seek grandeur at the expense of everyone else. Additionally, the Jeroboam for Bordeaux was 4.5 liters until 1978 when it switched over to the 5-liter size. Jeroboam was the first king of the northern Kingdom of Israel, from 931-910 BC, after the monarchy split into the ten tribes remaining in the north and Judah and Benjamin claiming south.
• Rehoboam: 4.5 liters only used for sparkling wine. Rehoboam, son of Solomon, was the last king of a united Israel. The northern tribes started to rebel against Solomon before his death, leading Rehoboam to relocate to Judah shortly after his coronation over the united Israel. He ruled over Judah from 931-913 BC.
• Methuselah: 6 liters used for sparkling wine or Burgundy. Methuselah was a biblical patriarch and the oldest person, 969 years, mentioned in the bible. He was the son on Enoch, father of Lamech, and grandfather to Noah. The name Methuselah, now synonymous with exceptional longevity, is traditionally believed to have meant “his death shall bring” during his lifetime. Tradition holds that he died in the same year as, but just prior to, the Great Flood, indicating that his life may have foreshadowed this event.
• Imperial: 6 liters or eight standard bottles. The meaning is possibly related to the region’s historical emphasis on creating wines worth of royalty and at 6 liters capable of serving several blue bloods in one sitting.
• Salmanazar: 9 liters equivalent to 12 standard bottles. The name likely refers to Shalmaneser V, an Assyrian king who reigned from 727 to 722 BCE. He is mentioned in the Bible for his conquest of Samaria and the exile of the northern Kingdom of Israel’s inhabitants. The dispersal of the inhabitants at this time became known as “Ten Lost Tribes”.
• Balthazar: 12 liters is equivalent to 16 standard bottles. Balthazar is traditionally known as one of the Three Magi who visited the infant Jesus after his birth. According to Christian tradition, Balthazar was the King of Arabia and brought the gift of myrrh to Jesus, symbolizing suffering and death. Myrrh during ancient times was not only used incense and perfumes, but it was also associated with embalming and anointing the dead including Jews. It was gift that foreshadowed Christ’s end.
• Nebuchadnezzar: 15 liters or 20 standard bottles. This monster, including wine and the bottle would weigh at least 40 lbs. Nebuchadnezzar II, ruling from 605-562 BC, was a Neo-Babylonian king. He is renowned for his military conquests, notably the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon’s temple, and the exile of the Jewish people in 586 BC, marking the third major instance of Jewish exile in ancient history.