Nebuchadnezzar

A Nebuchadnezzar is the largest bottle of Champagne usually sold. One pops up at auction sites from time to time. Since so large a bottle is verv heavy and difficult to pour, special tilting carts for very large bottles, often decorated with mother of pearl etc, were often used by royals and the very rich in the past, and such a cart sometimes comes up for auction. However a Nebuchadneezzar is tiny compared to some one- off special bottles that have been made. If I remember correctly, many years ago one of the port houses offered a huge bottle of port that contained a huge number of gallons of wine.

Since Godzilla is huge, he/she would have no more trouble drinking directly from such a bottle as mere humans have in drinking directly from a small beer bottle. I would suggest that Godzilla see if a rum company will provide Nebuchadnezzars of 151 proof (over 75% alcohol) rum. Then Godzilla could empty the bottle into his/her mouth and shoot out a most impressive flame that would be the envy of other dragons. :-)

Yours is the most imaginative response that I have ever received! :-) The next time that I invade Tokyo, I shall point my legendary fire breath in a different direction if you happen to be present.

Godzilla

In the June issue of Decanter under auction news it is reported that a Melchior of Cheval Blanc 1995 sold for US$ 45375 ( the price estimate for it was $5000 to 7000). More than one person must have wanted that huge bottle very much. This was at a Sotheby's New York auction on March 4. A Melchior bottle is 24 L or 32 standard wine bottles in size.

I remember Melchior (first name Lauritz) as a very famous Danish operatic tenor of yesteryear. This is a new bottle size designation for me - just when I thought that I had them all categorized.

Godzilla

See

I also know of Lauritz Melchior who was most famous for singing Siegfried, etc in Wagner's operas. Many argue that he was the best singer of all time for these extremely demanding roles, at least from the era from where there are recordings. Many things concerning food and wine are named after famous people. However if you search Google for Melchior, you get so many results that it could take much time to see if a bottle was named in honor of Lauritz Melchior. Melchior has many meanings going back thousands of years, for example being used for one of the 3 wise men of the Christian religion.

Yes, but there's an easy explanation: until standardization of bottle sizes in France (and later within the EU) sometimes in the

Saint-Galmier* 900ml Burgundy** 800ml Champagne*** 800ml Bordeaux etc. 750ml Alsace ("flute") 720ml Jura ("clavelin")**** 620ml

(Source: Raymond Dumay, "Le Guide du Vin", Paris 1967, cited from my German edition published 1969, p. 240)

• Neber heard of that region before.

** The book says that mostly 750ml bottles are used, so this seems to be a very a historical figure.

**** The still existing only exception from the 750ml standard.

So a Nebuchadnezzar was 16 litres (15.98 to be exact) in former times, while it's 15 litres today.

M.