We all know that the bottles of wines are 75cl and not 1L.

Crazy beliefs say that 75cl is the exact lung capacity of a glassblower, that it corresponds to the average consumption of wine per meal or that this volume is more convenient for transport… None of that is accurate! The truth is even more embarrassing (for the French). A look back in History… The volume of 75cl was standardized in the 19th century. At that time, the biggest clients for the French wines were the British. The close neighbours do not use the metric system and used to order wine in “imperial gallon”. One gallon is about 4.546 litres. Barrels were used to transport wine at that time. One barrel is 50 gallons, about 225 litres. A real nightmare for conversion! So to ease the calculation, the winemakers from Bordeaux decided that 1 barrel would be 300 bottles of wine instead of 225. 

Do the math and you’ll find that it makes a bottle at 75cl! One gallon is 6 bottles, and since then, that’s the reason why we still order wine in packs of 6 or 12 bottles.

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