Half Bottles

I wish there were more half bottles. And I wish they weren't so expensive. Like for what you pay for a half you could go and get a better full bottle.

Plus of course I'm not a big fan of opening a full bottle by myself, because I usually have one or two glasses and end up throwing it out a few days later.

Cheap 1/2s, and by the case, now that's what I'd like to see.

As for 1/4s, I don't think I've ever seen a 1/4. What would that be,

175ml. That would be good if you were really interested in buying a case of something and wanted to try it at home etc beforehand.

Half-bottles are 375ml and Splits are 187 ml. Splits are typically harder to find, and tend to be limited to sparkling (esp. stuff like Asti). Half-bottles are pretty common; if your local store isn't carrying them, ask them to. We currently stock in the neighborhood of 60-70 labels in halfs and are trying to increase this as they are extremely popular.

Also, with Bordeaux futures you should be able to request what size bottling you want. You pay for a case (12x750ml) but could get 24x375, 6x1.5L, etc. Again, ask.

As an aside, the earlier comment about not being a fan of saving part of a full (assumedly 750ml) bottle once opened is a typical comment I hear. My advice in these occasions is to purchase a half-bottle and then save the bottle (properly rinsed out of course). Then immediately after opening a full bottle of something you'd like to save, pour 1/2 into the smaller half bottle and seal it with a vaccu-vin (or just use a cork if you're going to drink it the next day). The rationale is that 1) you've minimized the exposure to air in the large bottle since it was just opened and 2) you are minimizing the amount of air exposure in the half-bottle (much easier to vaccu-vin) and as we know, air is why you can't keep a wine once opened for very long. I've used this method and kept wine for up to a week with only minimal impact to the wine.

Cheers, Gary

The quarter bottles (187) would be good to sample before committing to something bigger but they sell them here in groups of 4's. Wouldn't be bad if you had a group and traded them around like samples. I buy a Pinot that I like from Italy in them. Here you can get probably at least one of any grape in the quarter.

I shop around Pittsburgh and the last wine store I went in only had one half that wasn't sparkling, a Cabernet.

Doesn't it seem odd that the sparkling wine people would gravitate to quarter and half bottles? Such a festive wine for one.

Hello Gary,

Ppl keep giving me this advice [Andrew Goldfinch just the other day] and I keep forgetting to do it.

I've heard a number of ppl say it is quite effective.

Thanks,

Mat.