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The wine bottle as we know it today is only 3 centuries old. It was the development of the cylindrical glass bottle sealed with cork, stacked on its side to keep the cork airtight and moist, that allowed for the evolution of wines that improve in the bottle.
The "fifth bottle," originally a fifth of a gallon and now metrically rounded to 750 ml, was said to be a suitable serving for one person at dinner. These were days when most wines were low in alcohol. However, even in those early days, and for very special occasions, wineries put their product into impressive, large-format bottles. For reasons lost to history, most of these bottles were named after biblical figures such as the wicked King Nebuchadnezzar and the long-lived Methuselah. Conventional names varied between wine regions, with Champagne and Bordeaux in France being the two standards. Magnums hold the same volume in both regions: 1.5 liters.
Magnum wine bottles age better and more slowly, and develop a consistently better flavor than wines maturing in standard-size bottles, since the ratio of exposed to non-exposed wine decreases exponentially as bottle size increases. This means larger bottles have less exposure to the effects of oxygen, which are beneficial but eventually turn wine into vinegar. As a result, we get wines with greater uniformity and stability, as well as better and longer longevity.
Crianza, reserva, and gran reserva wines achieve their best ratings in 'Magnum' format.
Large-format bottles are ideal for family celebrations, are aesthetically elegant, and elevate any table.
Much of the range of these striking formats includes the Magnum (1.5 liters) and Double Magnum (3 liters) bottles. But there are also the following classifications: Jeroboam (4.5 liters), Imperial (6 liters), Salmanazar (9 liters), Balthazar (12 liters), and the magnificent, already mentioned Nebuchadnezzar (15 liters).
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