Why Are Most Whisky Bottles 700ml?

The standard capacity of a wine bottle is 750ml, but most whiskey bottles are 700ml. Why is this?

Ⅰ.Why is wine 750ml?

Although glass blowing was invented in ancient Rome, glass bottles were expensive at the time, so most alcoholic beverages, including whiskey and wine, were stored in clay jars. It was not until the 18th century when cork technology became popular that wine led the trend of glass bottling. However, at that time, the capacity of most wine bottles was 600-800ml, which was exactly the capacity that workers could blow out in one breath. The birth of the standard wine bottle was mainly because a barrel of wine (225L Bordeaux oak barrel) could be filled with 750ml  300 bottles, 12 bottles per box, and exactly 25 boxes.

Ⅱ. Whiskey changed from 750ml to 700ml

After the end of World War II, large-scale standardized production became the choice of many businesses. As a result, many alcoholic beverages followed the example of wine and adopted 750ml as the universal bottle capacity, which is exactly 1/5 of the British gallon. Now we sometimes hear words like 1/5 whiskey, 1/5 rum, and 1/5 vodka, which refer to whiskey, rum, and vodka with a capacity of 750ml.

By 1970, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Canada all implemented the 750ml standard bottle. However, the United States is very unique and insisted on using 757ml bottles until 1979 when it was changed to 750ml. Therefore, you will find that most whiskeys produced in the 1970s and 1980s generally have a capacity of 750ml.

Why did whiskey change from 750ml to 700ml? The reason is simple – price increase. Under the premise of keeping the price unchanged, the volume has been reduced, which means that the price per unit volume of wine has also increased (this is a normal business operation, and we have no reason to blame it).

In 1993, the European Union issued regulations to determine that 700ml is the standard volume (it is up to the winery to decide what volume to bottle. You can use the standard volume or choose other volumes. However, there are definitely more people who choose to bottle with the standard volume, because the standard bottles produced on a large scale have lower costs). Therefore, most whiskey bottles in the world have become 700ml.

However, the United States is still very independent and has always insisted on using 750ml bottles, so the standard volume of American whiskey bottles is 750ml.

Ⅲ. Why is it 700ml?

Why is it 700ml instead of 650ml or 600ml?

According to Johannes van den Heuvel, one of the founders of Malt Maniacs, the oak barrels used to age whiskey (mainly Scotch whiskey) are often 200L Bourbon barrels. After 12 years, the liquor in the barrels will only be 175L due to evaporation (although Scotch whiskey only requires barrel aging for 3 years, many high-quality Scotch whiskeys are often aged for 12 years or longer), and the alcohol content will also be reduced from 63% ABV to 55-60% ABV. After diluting the alcohol content to 40-43% ABV during bottling, it can be roughly bottled into 700ml  250 bottles. Generally speaking, a barrel of whiskey can produce 150-250 bottles of 700ml wine at the end of aging.

What other bottle capacities does whiskey have?

In addition to the 700ml common in the EU and the 750ml standard in the US, we can sometimes see 1,000ml and 500ml whiskeys.

1,000ml whiskeys can usually be found in duty-free shops at international airports and border crossings. This is because most laws limit the duty-free limit for passengers or nationals to 1L of alcohol (although my country can bring 1.5L of alcohol duty-free into the country). For example, non-EU passengers entering the EU cannot bring more than 1L of spirits, and the same is true for the US.

There is also a super-small whiskey, only 50ml, which is a small cup/portion (One Shot). 500ml of whiskey can be understood as 10 Shots.

At Zhonghai Glass, we specialize in crafting high-quality spirits glass bottles, including our popular whisky glass bottle and vodka glass bottle. Our bottles are fully customizable, allowing you to create unique packaging that reflects your brand’s identity. Whether you need the standard 700ml size or other capacities like 500ml or 1,000ml, we offer solutions that meet your specific needs.Contact us!