1955 The U K B G Guide to Drinks (2nd edition revised)

GLOSSARY OF USEFUL INFORMATION

Bodega. The Spanish name for a wine store or cellar ; the name has been adopted in many lands for wine bars and cellars. Bond. The store, vault or cellar in which wine and spirits are kept under Customs and Excise supervision before duty has been paid. The purchaser of wine or spirit'in bond'is liable for the payment of the duty thereon before he can take'delivery'of his purchase. To pay duty on and take delivery of wine and spirits in bond is'to clear from bond '. Bottles. Bottles are containers in which to store and carry liquids. The earliest bottles were made of skins sewed together, but the Ancients also had bottles made of stone, alabaster, glass, ivory, horn, silver, and common earthenware. Modern wine-bottles are made of glass composed chiefly of silica, soda and lime in varying proportions. The shades of green of wine-bottles, other than plain white ones, are imparted by iron oxide. Quart and pint bottles must, by law, contain a fourth and an eighth of a gallon, but the actual liquid contents of bottles, half-bottles or quarter-bottles are not legally defined, a fact taken advantage of by some unscrupulous dealers in wine. According to current commercial usage, wine bottles should never appreciably vary from the accepted standard of contents of 26.2/3 fluid ounces per reputed quart, or 6 quarts to the gallon, equal to 4 imperial quarts of 40 fluid ounces each. The more usual names of bottles in Great Britain, besides half- bottles and quarter-bottles, are the magnum (two bottles), double magnum (four bottles), tappithen (three imperial quarts), imperial pint (three-quarters of the reputed quart or ordinary bottle).

Outsize bottles, for show purposes more than for practical use:

Jeroboam or Double-Magnum 4bottles or 3.20 litres or 0.70

4.80 „

Rehoboam

1.05

6 ..

Methuselah

6.40 „

1.40

8

9.60 „

Salmanazar

2.10

12

12.80 „

Balthazar

2.80

16

Nebuchadnezzar

16.00 „

3.50

20

In France, the fluid contents of various bottles are fixed by law as follows: Litre = 100 centilitres or 0.220 gallon 267