Written on 19/10/2020
For the curious, and those who dare not ask
The aim of this blog is to talk about wine simply, with love and without complexes, which is why we'll try as often as possible to answer questions that even some professionals no longer dare to ask. Here's one that we hope will make you shine when you open a bottle ofwine...
WHY ARE THE BOTTLES 75 CENTILITRES?
Why not just 1 liter, which would surely have helped the winegrowers' bottom line? Where do we get this barbaric unit that doesn't apply to mineral water?
THE LEGENDS
If you put this question to a gathering of bon vivants, you're sure to find a misinformed smart aleck or a sweet dreamer, more interested in legend than truth, to tell you that 75 cl corresponds to the lung capacity of a glass-blower, the creator of the bottles. Another will assert peremptorily that it's the right daily dose of wine for a family. Two options: let them dream or teach them something.
THE TRUTH
As is too often the case in history, here we have to cry out trivially "it's the British fault!"
In the 19th century, France standardized its wine bottles to 75cl for purely commercial reasons. The biggest customers were the English, who did nothing like the others, and therefore measured liquids not in liters but in imperial gallons. Since an imperial gallon corresponds to 4.54609 liters, we had to find a way to avoid using bottles as big as kettles. To keep things more or less in line, we agreed on 225-liter (50-gallon) barrels, divisible into 300 75-cl bottles. Through the magic of mathematics and trade agreements, 1 gallon is now equivalent to 6 bottles of wine, to be placed in wooden crates...
MORE INFO
As we said earlier, the 75 cl was agreed in the 19th century. But on some very old bottles, you may be surprised by a 73 cl capacity. In those days, bottles could indeed hold 75 cl, but the cork would overflow a little. The more scientific will have understood that this is the missing 2cl. Today, therefore, bottles are actually 77 cl and hold 75 cl of wine.
