Pat, Before the US converted wine and spirit bottle sizes to metric, the legal requirements were Customary, and the fifth (of a US gallon) was the main size. All the sizes (both pre and post metric) can be accessed by following the links to legislation on the USMA laws page. The 750 mL bottle seems universal as one of the standard sizes for wine. However, on spirits, the US also requires 750 mL and forbids 700 mL. The EU appears to require 700 mL and forbids 750 mL. There are other standard sizes permitted, but they are not particularly close spaced and 700 vs 750 would certainly be deceptive, and depending on the law, one would be illegal. Note that 750 mL, a fifth (of a US gallon) and a sixth (of an Imperial gallon) are pretty close together. The same bottle could be used and the fill modified. I am not sure whether Customary is even allowed as supplemental, I would have to check; it is certainly not "customary" (pardon the pun). Metric sizes have been mandatory for several decades. It is one of the few cases of "specified sizes" in the US.
--- On Sat, 3/7/09, Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> wrote: From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:43446] RE: Mistaken blather from a correspondent on another list To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, March 7, 2009, 2:37 PM On 2009/03/08, at 4:53 AM, Norman & Nancy Werling wrote: I haven't participated in these exchanges (arguments?) within the USMA email list. However, I had never became conversant with the terms just mentioned such as "fifth" even though I am now age 73. I guess it meant a fifth of a gallon. Anyway I just checked three cold bottles of wine in our refrigerator and find that two are 750 ml and one is 1.5 L. There is absolutely no reference to any fluid ounces, gallons, quarts, or any obsolete measures from Imperial (so-called English) or equally antiquated U.S. Customary volume. Norman Werling Dear Norman, I think that the history of bottle sizes goes something like this: * In the UK the bottle was designed and made to be a sixth of an Imperial gallon. This made it possible and convenient to account for beer or wine production in terms of two gallons to the dozen. Dozens were, and are, a convenient packing format for bottles. One sixth of an Imperial gallon works out as 26 2/3 fluid ounces (Imp) or 757.682 millilitres. * When these bottles were exported to the USA the amount they contained worked out to be 757.0824 millilitres or close to 1/5 of a (wet USA) gallon and still containing 757.682 millilitres. * As metrication became more common in the UK and in the USA, the amount of the contents in wine or beer bottles was quietly rounded down from 757.682 millilitres (UK) or 757.0824 millilitres (USA) to 750 millilitres. * The current trend in downsizing is to round down the 750 mL to 700 mL. This is common in Australia for spirits like gin, whiskey, and brandy but I don't know whether this trend has begun yet in the UK or the USA. * These days much beer is sold in a little under half the amount (375 mL) of the full size traditional large bottle (757.682 mL). Rounding down in this size is currently to 355 mL and to 330 mL bottles and cans. I suspect that the marketers have 300 mL in their sights as all they need is an unregulated period when they can adjust bottle and can sizes to suit themselves. On another related issue, I have watched over the years a trend in the UK and Australia to provide quantities of beer in glasses that can only hold the advertised amount when filled to the brim of the glass. This trend began in about the 1940s. Prior to that the practice was to provide a glass that held about 10 % more than the advertised quantity to allow for a 'head' of froth. I have an old beer glass that is labelled 11 ounces (Imp) that was used in Australia to provide half a pint of beer of 10 ounces (Imp). A current beginnings of a new trend that I have seen in Australia and in Singapore is to provide beer in a 500 millilitre glass that can only hold 500 mL if filled to the brim. These new pints (and yes I have seen them advertised as 'pints') mean that the glass when filled to the brim hold about 440 millilitres of beer and about 60 millilitres of froth to fill the 500 mL glass. Cheers, Pat Naughtin Geelong, Australia
