The typical champagne drinkers will likely only come across the first 4 sizes of champagne bottles. These consist of the piccolo, filled with what amounts to a large glass of champagne (just over 187 ml), as well as the demi or half-bottle (375 ml), the standard bottle (750 ml), and the magnum bottle (1.5 liters or 10-12 glasses, approximating 2 bottles). These, however, are less than half of the bottle sizes that are available. Curiously, for the remaining bottles, the titles take a drastic pivot into names from ancient Israel, Assyria and Babylon.
Next up on the list is the Jeroboam bottle, which holds 3 liters (approximately 4 standard bottles of champagne, or 20-24 glasses). The name harkens back to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which rejected the rule of Solomon’s dynasty after the king’s death. The first ruler of the Northern Kingdom was King Jeroboam (ruled approximately 928-907 BC), and a future successor, Jeroboam II (783-741 BC) oversaw a golden age of prosperity in the Northern Kingdom. Fittingly, the Jeroboam bottle is positioned beside the next title on the list, Rehoboam, referring to a container that holds six bottles worth of champagne, namely 4.5 liters or 30-36 glasses. King Rehoboam of Judah (ruled approximately 928-911 BC) was the son of King Solomon (r. 10th century BC) and the grandson of King David (flourished c. 1000 BC). The ascendance of Rehoboam ignited decades worth of tension and bad blood that had been building up between rival Hebrew tribes that supported or opposed the House of David. The northern tribes held a grudge against King David for his rebellion against King Saul of Israel (said to have ruled approximately c. 1021-1000 BCE) and David’s alliance with the Philistines, who slew Saul and his heir apparent, Jonathan, at the Battle of Gilboa. Saul’s other son, Ishbaal, succeeded to his late father’s panicked kingdom, and it was at that time of crisis that opportunistic King David occupied the region of Judah, provoking a civil war. After Ishbaal was subsequently assassinated, David absorbed the northern tribes, but many in the north continued to see David and his descendants as upstarts or usurpers. Consequently, upon the ascendance of David’s grandson, King Rehoboam, the disgruntled northern tribes declared independence under the leadership of the aforementioned King Jeroboam of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
Methuselah is the next bottle size, amounting to 6 liters or between 40 and 48 glasses, the equivalent of 8 standard bottles of champagne. Instead of an ancient king, this bottle is named after an even more ancient patriarch mentioned briefly in the Book of Genesis. According to the Bible, “all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty-nine years, and he died” (Genesis 5.27, NRSV translation), which, if taken literally, would make him the oldest human to have ever lived.
For the next bottles, the creators of champagne bottle names relied on kings from ancient Assyria and Babylon. Up first is King Shalmaneser V of Assyria (r. 727-722 BC), whose name inspired the Salmanazar champagne bottle, which holds 9 liters, or between 60 and 72 glasses of champagne (approximately 12 standard bottles). Shalmaneser oversaw the Assyrian siege and conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel’s capital, Samaria, which fell in 722 BC. Moving on to Babylonia, the next bottle is called Balthazar (12 liters or 80-96 glasses, approximating 16 standard bottles), named after Belshazzar, the oldest son of and co-ruler of King Nabonidus (r. 556-539 BC). For most of Nabonidus’ reign, Belshazzar served as the regent ruler of Babylonia, overseeing the military and government administration of the Neo-Babylonian realm. Unfortunately for the father and son duo, they lived during the time of Cyrus the Great (r. 550-529 BC) and his Achaemenid Persian Empire. Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 BCE, while Belshazzar was still acting as regent.
Finally, for the biggest bottle of champagne, one must rewind back to the golden age of the Neo-Babylon Empire and the reign of King Nebuchadrezzar II (r. 605-562 BC). He is often referred to as Nebuchadnezzar in the bible, and it is from that name that the Nebuchadnezzar bottle of champagne sourced its title. Consisting of 15 liters or 100-120 glasses, the Nebuchadnezzar approximately holds the contents of 20 standard bottles of champagne. In addition to being a man focused on law and lavish construction projects (notably his Hanging Gardens of Babylon), Nebuchadrezzar was also a warrior-king who battled many foes, such as Elam, Arabia, Egypt, and the Kingdom of Judah. In the context of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar militarily occupied Jerusalem twice. First, he conquered Jerusalem in 597 BC and deposed King Jehoiachin of Judah, replacing him with his uncle, Zedekiah, on the agreement that he would operate as a vassal of the Babylonian king. When King Zedekiah subsequently began to rally an anti-Babylonian resistance, Nebuchadrezzar returned in 587 or 586 BC and militarily occupied Jerusalem once more. Less forgiving on this second occasion, Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem, deposed Zedekiah, dissolved the Kingdom of Judah, and began his so-called Babylonian Captivity policy of forcibly relocating Judeans to Babylon.
These, then, are the unique names of champagne bottles, and they are quite an intriguing selection, indeed. From smallest to largest, based on a standard champagne bottle volume, the bottle titles are piccolo (¼ bottle), demi (½ bottle), standard (1 bottle), magnum (2 bottles), Jeroboam (4 bottles), Rehoboam (6 bottles), Methuselah (8 bottles), Salmanazar (12 bottles), Balthazar (16 bottles) and Nebuchadnezzar (20 bottles). If nothing else, the names are rather good conversation starters for the next time someone pops open a cork to a champagne bottle.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Champaign illustration by Hans Koegel overlaid with a section from John Martin’s Belshazzar’s Feast, both [Public Domain] via Yale Art and Stiftelsen Nordiska museet).
Sources:
- The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version With The Apocrypha (Fifth Edition, Fully Revised), edited by Michael D. Coogan and associates. Oxford University Press, 2018.
- The Oxford Companion to the Bible, edited by Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan. Oxford University Press, 1993.
- https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%205&version=NRSVUE
- https://www.californiachampagnesabers.com/blog/champagne-bottle-sizes-explained-from-piccolo-to-nebuchadnezzar/
- https://champagnehunters.com/champagne-facts/the-different-sizes-of-champagne-bottles-a-guide-to-champagne-bottle-sizes-and-their-names/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jeroboam#ref1250321
