Does Size Matter
Does bottle size matter?
Well that depends if have the budget for it, the need or want, the storage space
and the patience.
Wine-Searcher’s Kathleen Wilcox wrote an interesting piece back in September - about the increase in demand for larger format bottle sizes. Though the technical information is nothing new and widely available she reminded me of the fashionable ‘show-off’ aspect that these bottles sizes instantly command. Don’t get me wrong I have a few magnums of wine ageing silently for the day I decide I need to open one. And there in lies the challenge - when do you actually open a bottle of wine that is the equivalent of 2 or 8 or 20 bottles equivalent?
As a wine buyer for Rodd and Gunn’s Lodge Bar entities I sometime buy magnums for when a group request the them and it’s great for staff to sell magnums instead of second bottles of the same wine, they do look grand. They also take up a lot of space.
Kathleen also rightly points out the benefits of ageing wine in larger formats and I couldn’t agree more, there are many benefits. That said the waiting time for drinking is extended too, so may be it’s your grandchildren that will enjoy your investment.
One final comment about large format bottles - corks. Wine corks in 750 ml bottles are a crapshoot, buyer beware. Any bottle larger than a magnum will be closed with a cork and given the incidence of cork taint still at least 1% (my guesstimate) then the bigger the bottle, the bigger the disappointment.
Here’s the article below with a link to the original thereafter - the original also contains hyper-links to other information.
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Penis jokes aside, there are many things that are perceived as "better" when they come in XXL. Televisions, slices of cake, yachts. Others, not so much: shoulder pads, zucchini, email attachments. So what about the size of a wine bottle?
Super-sized wine bottle, from the Magnum (1.5 liters, or the equivalent of two bottles) to Jeroboams (4.5 liters, or the equivalent of six bottles) and even up to Nebuchadnezzar (15 liters, or the equivalent of 20 bottles), are appearing with more frequency at restaurants and celebrations – and in the cellars of collectors. We look at the numbers, and put the wine industry on the couch to analyze why so many people want bigger bottles, and what that desire signifies.
Demand is skyrocketing
On-premise sales of large-format wines are way up, according to Somm ai, the world's largest database of wine and spirits sales. (Somm.ai gathers data from 42,000 restaurants, hotels, stadiums and other venues selling alcohol around the US.)
In the past year, there has been double-digit growth in the number of accounts offering larger format bottles in New York, California, Florida, Nevada, Colorado and Massachusetts. New York has the highest number of placements – 444.
There's growing interest in wines across the board, but key regions dominate, according to Somm.ai's data. Wines from California dominate, with twice the number of placements of other regions, and Champagne is right behind. Burgundy is growing the fastest though, with 18.4 percent more placements year-over-year. Tuscany and Bordeaux are also growing by 15.8 percent and 13.2 percent, respectively.
"About 35 percent of restaurants carrying large-format bottles are choosing to feature Napa wine," Somm.ai's co-founder Jeremy Hart says. "Overall, California has more than 21,000 placements, accounting for 23 percent of the total large formats placed. Of that, Napa alone accounts for 14,500 placements. Sonoma is a distant second with 3200 large format bottles on wine lists."
At Champagne Palmer, global commercial director Raymond Ringeval says that the interest in larger-format bottles has been growing for a long time.
The Champagne house, which produces 90,000 cases annually of eight different cuvees, has been making Jeroboams since the 1970s, and in the 1980s expanded to other larger bottles.
"We are one of the few houses to carry out secondary fermentation in the larger bottles themselves," Ringeval says. "Because the process is so traditional and artisanal and requires a 10-year or more cellar-aging process before we can release it, the output has always been very limited."
But in the past few years, he notes that the requests for large-format wines have increased, especially in New York and LA, forcing them to manage the larger formats under allocation only.
Piper-Heidsieck Champagne, meanwhile, has seen a significant enough upsurge in inquiries to transform its production process.
"The current demand on alternative sizes is growing, especially in magnums," says Benoit Collard, CEO of Piper-Heidsieck. "We launched Piper-Heidsieck Vintage 2014 in magnums and regular bottles."
The last time the house released a vintage in magnums was 1982, another era defined by demonstrative displays of celebration.
What is behind the sudden thirst for super-sized bottles of vino?
A 'spectacle' of 'luxury'
If you want to show, not tell, others that you have great taste, a big bank account and you're ready to party, there are few better ways to do it than opening up a big old bottle of grand cru.
There is an element of ceremony and spectacle in opening even a regular-sized bottle of wine. The larger the bottle, the greater the drama.
At Chimney Rock, GM and winemaker Elizabeth Vianna says she loves large-format bottles as both a consumer and a producer.
"Large formats create a sense of spectacle and luxury, making the occasion feel special and memorable," she notes, explaining that Chimney Rock produces both 3 and 6-liter bottles. "They also command higher prices and revenues compared to standard bottles," which makes them a win for wineries and the restaurants and retailers that sell them.
Vianna says that restaurants that host people celebrating milestones and big wins – steakhouses, Michelin-starred eateries and private clubhouses –have a huge appetite for big bottles.
"We did a pre-sell on a signed large format bottle and it was so successful, I ended up signing more than 300 on a visit," she marvels. "We love them so much we started a Magnum club at Chimney Rock, and I make one wine – our Kesu Cabernet Sauvignon – for magnums alone."
Dennis Kreps co-owner at the Napa-based importer and marketer Quintessential, says that around the holidays, sales of magnums in retail stores take off.
"They are a great option for holiday gift giving," Kreps notes. "They make a splash at a party, and are a standout gift."
Ageable and practical
Larger bottles not only look fabulous, they age wine more efficiently because the ratio between the volume of wine in the bottle and the air between the top of the wine and cork is higher, so oxygenation happens slower. The bigger the bottle, the longer the wine can safely and gradually age.
Hervé Dantan, winemaker at Champagne Lanson notes that larger formats slow down aging, while also "guaranteeing the full opening up of its aromas and allowing it to gradually gain in complexity. With Lanson, one word comes to mind: Freshness."
The team vinifies with a predominantly non-malolactic fermentation, he explains.
"When combined with aging in a magnum format, this results in wines of incomparable freshness and extraordinary aromatic richness, with a rare aging capacity," Dantan says.
For many, making key releases available in magnum has become par for the course – with both quality and practicality in mind.
"Large format bottles excel at minimizing unnecessary exposure to oxygen, so we always make magnums of our most special wines available," Guillaume Barraud, co-director of Gerard Bertrand Estates.
It also makes hosting a killer party easier and instantly sets a vibe, he notes.
"We also rely on them for practicality," Barraud says. "We have a lot of special events at Chateau L’Hosptalet. We want our staff to be out front with our guests engaging, not bogged down with opening bottles. And there's something about a Gris Blanc on the beach that just says 'endless summer.'"
At Benchmark Wine Group, a leading source of fine and rare wine for retailers, restaurants and collectors, CEO and owner David Parker says that Bordeaux wines in particular have been scooped up by collectors, especially in the Northeast in the US and Asia. He also notes that magnums from Burgundy and premium California Cabernets are performing well.
"Gen Xers, younger Boomers and older Millennials with a long-term collecting outlook are particularly interested," Parker says. "Champagne is also very popular, but primarily for celebrations."
The market for large-format has become so brisk, Benchmark has started offering not just bottles, but cases of large-format wines.
It's unclear if the thirst for bigger bottles is a hangover from COVID, and society's delight at being able to celebrate together again – or if the move towards bigger bottles is a desire to show off, or just age their precious wine a little bit better? For most people, it's probably a bit of all of the above. Understanding the why behind the embrace of super-sized bottles is interesting, and important if producers want to completely fulfill it. (I.e. if it's all about the spectacle, for example, the design of the label and bottle may change).
But in the end, what's most important is knowing the interest is there in the first place. Vintners, consider this your PSA. Bigger, it seems, is better – at least when it comes to wine bottles.
Great article - thank you Kathleen
Here’s a link to the original piece:
https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2023/09/big-bottles-the-current-big-hitters?rss=Y