The Auswine Forum

I suspect this has been raised before, I know I mentioned it somewhere on a thread a couple of years ago but I hate 750ml bottles. I wish wines came in 500ml and 1 litre bottles.

Every time my wife and I open a bottle with dinner we end up with about 250ml left. It ends up sitting on the bench and I drink it with inappropriate food about 4 days later just to get rid of it.

Alternatively if we have a special meal we drink a bottle and always want just one glass more so we either give it a miss or open a bottle and pour two smallish glasses leaving about 400-500ml in the bottle which then goes through the same routine as above. Also, because we know this will happen, we usually open a lesser or cheaper bottle than the first and it's a real let down. A magnum is too much and too much would be wasted whereas a litre would be just right and would have the added benefit of the better cellaring capabilities than a 750ml bottle (if you acknowledge that magnums cellar better than single bottles).

The same with 500 ml bottles. Just right for 2 people for a weekday meal and better cellaring potential than those piddly 375ml bottles. Why don't we do away with half bottles (what purpose do they serve except for stickies) and bottle 500mls instead? I would never consider buying a half bottle of red.

Even if we just did away with 375 and had 500, 750, and 1.5L. Personally I'd rather have 1L than magnums but one step at a time.

Come on, lets see some brave soul market a good quality red in 500 and 1 Litre bottles.

Two Hands have a 500ml Moscato [6.5% alcohol].
I have not tried it but was on show at a local tasting last week.
Do not know if Two Hands do any other 500ml.

Regards,
Ron.

I prefer 795ml bottles

Ratcatcher wrote: Every time my wife and I open a bottle with dinner we end up with about 250ml left.

What kind of winos are you guys, that's just 250ml each!

I personally tend to drink 750ml at a sitting although a little less would probably be better.

I rarely leave small amounts in bottles, better to steel yourself and polish of that extra 125ml each.

Drink a smidge less, decant into 300ml screw capped soda water bottles and refridgerate. You can vacupump these bottles as well if you can't fill them, but the efficacy is debatable.

You can get 500ml bottles too if you want to try several wines on one night and keep the remainder.

Start drinking earlier.

Even if you live in Hobart opened wine will keep better in the fridge. Forget all the nonsense about room temperature, just take it out of the fridge an hour before (if it's red) And as Simm says decanting into smaller bottles helps as well.

Have ever thought of the possibility of actually drinking two different wines on the same night? That way you can have one perfectly paired for your meal, and another for starters or afterwards. You can do comparisons as well.

Cheers

I completely agree with Ratcatcher... either way I look at it... 500 ml bottle is enough for 1, or 2 people. For me... 500 ml is usually enough for two people...

Have you lost your nostalgic wine brain? Wine started comming in 750mL bottles because when glass bottles were blown, 750mL is basicly the capacity of your lungs i.e. one bottle per blow.

There's alot of hard yakka behind that 750mL size, so drink up you Spigin Huffta.

Gosh Ratcatcher, you must eat very small meals at dinner. I can't possibly imagine two people drinking less than a bottle of wine with a special meal, especially since the wine is likely to be special as well. And if it is a cellared wine then some wine would be "lost" with the sediment left in the bottle after decanting.

Joking aside, if I think my partner and I may want more than a single bottle of wine for dinner we have two choices. We could either drink a glass of sherry or white wine before dinner, or have a glass of port, muscat or tokay afterwards. In both cases the wines will keep and serve a similar purpose on another day.


Cheers.................Mahmoud.

Mahmoud Ali wrote:Gosh Ratcatcher, you must eat very small meals at dinner. I can't possibly imagine two people drinking less than a bottle of wine with a special meal, especially since the wine is likely to be special as well. And if it is a cellared wine then some wine would be "lost" with the sediment left in the bottle after decanting.

Joking aside, if I think my partner and I may want more than a single bottle of wine for dinner we have two choices. We could either drink a glass of sherry or white wine before dinner, or have a glass of port, muscat or tokay afterwards. In both cases the wines will keep and serve a similar purpose on another day.


Cheers.................Mahmoud.

500 ml bottles = greater variety of special wines with different special meals at one sitting.

Mahmoud, you misread my message.

With a special meal we drink a bottle and feel like one more glass each so end up opening a 2nd bottle.

We drink 2/3 of a bottle for dinner midweek.

In answer to an earlier post, this occurs because my wife will usually have 1 glass and I will have one and a bit of a top up.

Thanks for all the other ideas about re-bottling into smaller bottles. If we drank 375ml that would be OK but we usually drink 450 - 500 for casual meals and 900 to 1100 with big dinners. Multiples of 750 just don't seem to fit for us. I wondered if this was a common problem.

I do like the idea of opening 2 bottles and rebottling a portion of each. Then I guess we've got 3 servings of 500ml.

I presume you need to keep your small bottles sterilised? Are screwcapped bottles the best to reuse?

Looks like I'll need to buy a few screwcapped stickies and fortifieds to get a collection of bottles.

The solution is to have guests over.
The 750ml bottle is purpose built to share between four.

Anothe way is open a frewsh bottle every night for 3-4 nights then on pizza night just have whichever suits your fancy.

i have some badly ullaged bottles, low/below shoulder. these might be closer to 500ml.

only trying to help

I'd like to see 500ml as well, although how would Dicko and Hinch go if that happened. At 3 and 4 bottles a day respectively, that would translate to 4.5 and 6 empties a day! Maybe an extra trip to the wheelie bin for the poor sods (or should I say soaks!!!)

kirragc wrote:The solution is to have guests over.
The 750ml bottle is purpose built to share between four.

Anothe way is open a frewsh bottle every night for 3-4 nights then on pizza night just have whichever suits your fancy.

Disagree... 750 ml is just right for 3

There is a winery in the Hunter Valley who sells wines in 500ml bottles. I think they are called Moorebank or something like that. They are opposite Calais Estate if you know the Hunter at all. I bought some wine as a present for someone whose wife would only ever have a half a glass at a time.