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Since 1700, Wine Glasses Have Gotten 7 Times Bigger

atlasobscura.com

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Re: Since 1700, Wine Glasses Have Gotten 7 Times Bigger

#61

Post by mcguire »

lqet wrote: post #29
justaaron wrote: post #24

Why has no one mentioned that "wine" to a Brit in 1700 meant FORTIFIED wine like Port wine or Sherry (aka 18-20% alcohol instead of 11-15%)? The fortification of Port wine is legendarily attributed to both British tastes for sweet or "stalled mid fermentation by addition of spirits" wine, and the voyage by sea, in which normal wines suffered excessively from spoilage etc.

This is what I thought. I regularly enjoy a "modern" glass of wine, but for port wine, even a full shot glass is too much for me. It's just so heavy and sweet. The glasses depicted in the article seem to hold exactly the amount of port I would be able to comfortably drink in 10-20 minutes.

That's exactly what I was thinking. A modern sherry or port glass is the same size as those illustrated.

Note also,

"As a supplemental unit of apothecary measure, the wineglass (also known as wineglassful, pl. wineglassesful, or cyathus vinarius in pharmaceutical Latin) was defined as ​1⁄8 of a pint, or 2 fluid ounces (2​ 1⁄2 fluid ounces in the imperial system).[11][12] An older version (before c. 1800) was 1 ​1⁄2 fluid ounces.[13] These units bear little relation to the capacity of most contemporary wineglasses, or to the ancient Roman cyathus."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_glass

Re: Since 1700, Wine Glasses Have Gotten 7 Times Bigger

#62

Post by coldacid »

maxxxxx wrote: post #42
snug wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be true from your youth, but things are getting smaller from a decade ago, candy[0], chips, fountain drinks, etc. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/24/sweets-are-...

This is an interesting dynamic. First they made things much bigger and now they are trying to deliver less at the same price. It would be interesting to see how decisions for pricing and size are made.

Whatever maximizes profit.

Re: Since 1700, Wine Glasses Have Gotten 7 Times Bigger

#63

Post by wmil »

esmi wrote: post #35

http://www.delish.com/food/news/a39120/super-sized-beverages... "For 25 years, a 26-ounce drink was the biggest soda a person could buy. Then in 1980, a shift occurred when 7-Eleven began its Big Gulp campaign. Big Gulp fountain drink cup sizes steadily rose throughout the decade and beyond, beginning at 32 ounces in 1980, then climbing to 44 ounces in 1986, 64 ounces in 1989, and a behemoth 128 ounces in 2006. Calle…

A bottle of wine is less than 26 oz. So the wineries need to catch up.

Re: Since 1700, Wine Glasses Have Gotten 7 Times Bigger

#64

Post by greglindahl »

wmil wrote: post #63
esmi wrote: post #35

http://www.delish.com/food/news/a39120/super-sized-beverages... "For 25 years, a 26-ounce drink was the biggest soda a person could buy. Then in 1980, a shift occurred when 7-Eleven began its Big Gulp campaign. Big Gulp fountain drink cup sizes steadily rose throughout the decade and beyond, beginning at 32 ounces in 1980, then climbing to 44 ounces in 1986, 64 ounces in 1989, and a behemoth 128 ounces in 2006. Calle…

A bottle of wine is less than 26 oz. So the wineries need to catch up.

There are larger wine bottles: magnum, double magnum, jeroboam, ...

http://www.wrathofgrapes.com/bottles.html

Re: Since 1700, Wine Glasses Have Gotten 7 Times Bigger

#65

Post by freeflight »

maxxxxx wrote: post #42
snug wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be true from your youth, but things are getting smaller from a decade ago, candy[0], chips, fountain drinks, etc. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/24/sweets-are-...

This is an interesting dynamic. First they made things much bigger and now they are trying to deliver less at the same price. It would be interesting to see how decisions for pricing and size are made.

It's also interesting how difficult they can make comparing sizes/prices for even the simplest things, like for example toilet paper. Even comparing similar quality rolls with each other can sometimes be quite a math exercise, as different manufacturers sell different numbers of rolls, with different numbers of sheets, sometimes even in different sizes per sheet.

So how to calculate the best value toilet paper? Based on sheets? Based on average area of paper you get per roll? And who wants to do all that when you are simply looking for something to, literally, wipe your butt with? Sometimes I think having choices can be a really bad non-choice.

Re: Since 1700, Wine Glasses Have Gotten 7 Times Bigger

#67

Post by jdonaldson »

wahern wrote: post #59
jdonaldson wrote: post #47

I'll start off echoing what others have been saying... ports and madeiras were more popular. They resisted spoiling due to the high alcohol/sugar content. They can kick like a mule, so you can't just down 250ML in a sitting. Wine glasses are also fragile. A lot of places serve wine in common water glasses of roughly the same size. Italians have been doing that forever. Bigger glasses are more fragile, but they greatl…

FWIW, Sercial (dry) and Verdelho (medium-dry) Madeiras, sporting less sugar and nice acidity, can be quite quaffable. The acidity also helps, I think, to mask the stronger alcohol content. Those styles are really hard to find, though, as both cheap and expense Madeiras tend to be of the Malmsey style and only slightly less cloying than Port. The second most common style is Boal, which is less sweeter than Malmsey but…

Thanks, I gotta bone up on my madeiras.

Re: Since 1700, Wine Glasses Have Gotten 7 Times Bigger

#68

Post by djrogers »

easy_lucky_free wrote: post #13
djrogers wrote: post #11

I have heard that such small glasses were a) somewhat necessary due to the difficulty of glassmaking in the 1700s, and b) not a problem when you have servants following you around keeping your glasses topped up.

I mean, the average person didn't exactly have servants. Glass-making concept makes sense to me though.

The average person drinking wine from a special wine glass likely did.

Re: Since 1700, Wine Glasses Have Gotten 7 Times Bigger

#69

Post by djrogers »

wott wrote: post #37

It is always funny to see Americans using huge (as in HUGE) glasses to drink wine, believing that it is the French distinguished way of tasting wine, and being disappointed when they discover that French people just use regular/smallish glasses in any context. No, it is just Americans confusing 'big' for 'refined' as usual :-) (and bigger for more refined, and even bigger for super classy).

Err, no - we’re pretty well aware that those glasses are a modern improvement from California. There are many good reasons for drinking the same 4-5oz of wine out of a nice big modern cab glass, pretending to be more French is definitely not one fo them.

Re: Since 1700, Wine Glasses Have Gotten 7 Times Bigger

#70

Post by kalleboo »

microcolonel wrote: post #57
astura wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See: https://consumerist.com/tag/grocery-shrink-ray-2/

I saw the Toblerone there and something clicked in my head. A friend brought back a large Toblerone from the UK (I live in Canada) and I noticed that there were rather large gaps between the peaks. The gaps between the peaks on a Toblerone sold here in Toronto are too small to fit a child's finger.

This was a recent change (I think in response to increased cocoa prices) http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37904703
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