Wine plates

Wine glasses are seven times bigger than in 1700

Curiosities. No. 10.

In the 1700s the average English wine glass held 66 ml. By 2017 it held 449 ml

Researchers at the University of Cambridge measured 411 glasses from 1700 onwards and published the results in the BMJ in 2017. Glasses grew slowly for about 250 years, then quickly from the 1990s, helped along by demand from the United States.

They measured what a glass holds, not what gets poured. A 150 ml serve fills about a third of today’s average glass. The study did not show that bigger glasses cause people to drink more; it measured capacity only.

The plate

Plate reading: Wine glasses are seven times bigger than in 1700
Average capacity of an English wine glass: 66 ml in the 1700s, 449 ml in 2016 to 2017
Most of the growth is recent: slow for 250 years, fast from the 1990s
Capacity, not the pour: a 150 ml serve fills about a third of the average glass
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Sources

  • Zupan Z, Evans A, Couturier D-L, Marteau TM. “Wine glass size in England from 1700 to 2017: a measure of our time.” BMJ 2017;359:j5623. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  • University of Cambridge, “Mistletoe and (a large) wine: seven-fold increase in wine glass size over 300 years”: cam.ac.uk

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