Now I Know My Wine-Phabet: “J” is for Jeroboam

 In this new series called “Now I know my Wine-phabet”, I will explore letter by letter wine and what I believe are some of the most important and/or influential aspects in the world of wine.  Since I am only choosing one topic per letter, many will be missed.  Hopefully these posts come across as being whimsical and informative.

King Jeroboam was known as the evil king of Israel.  King Jeroboam was said to have divided Israel and Judah.  His rival Rehoboam accused him of leading his people away from god and to the worship of the golden calf.

But how does Jeroboam pertain to wine?

A Jeroboam is a huge bottle, yup pretty big.  If the Jeroboam holds Sparkling wine it holds 4 bottles of wine.  However, if it’s intended to hold still wine, the bottle is a lot larger and holds 6 bottles of wine.  Technically, if I were to go to Vons and purchase a Jeroboam, I’d get my 10% discount for purchasing half a case of wine.

How many of you have drunk wine from a Jeroboam?  Not many. Why?  Not everyone produces a Jeroboam.  If a winery puts wine into a Jeroboam it can say two things about the winery.

1) The winery is very successful.  Their juice is the best and they believe in spending the extra money in producing Jeroboams.  Their consumers are willing to spend the money on a trophy bottle, knowing that the wine will age better.  That consumer will also plans on serving 6 bottles of their favorite wine some time in their lifetime.

2)  The winery’s self importance is so obnoxious that they believe that their wine needs to be in a large bottle.  A typical case of a winery with a lot of money which suffers from wine envy, and the classic misconception that bigger is better.