Just what is the standard pour, and how many glasses does a bottle hold?

Monday, January 19, 2009

This is a question that has vexed people, more so patrons rather than bartenders, in regards to what a standard pour of a glass of wine is.  You hate it when you go to a restaurant, and they give you a nice large glass, and it appears that they gave you a skimpy serve, but you go somewhere else and they really break you off.  Well, I did some looking around [again], and this is what I discovered.

Based on the normal alcohol content of a 750ml bottle of wine, a standard glass is 5 ounces, and a bottle holds just a scooch over 5 glasses.  Each glass makes up 147.87 ml, but the rub is that the American ounce is actually larger than the British ounce, if you can believe it.

Now, the one thing that I have noticed is that restaurants serving less expensive wine are more apt to give you 6 ounces and basically divide a bottle of wine over four glasses.  I usually find this is the case when they are pouring from 1.5L bottles.  Some places give you the option to supersize your glass and purchase eight ounces.  The standard pour for tastings is 1.5 ounces and some restaurants will let you order 3 ounce pours as well.  The exception is with dessert and fortified wines, in which your pour might be anywhere from 2-3 ounces, and this is based upon the alcohol percentage of the wine.  You’ll especially find this with wines like Port, Sherry and Madeira, and they’ll also be served in smaller glasses (God, I love this one restaurant which pours me a 6 ounce glass of Port and charges me a price comparable to a glass of white wine!).

To help bartenders out, sometimes they will use glass-sized carafes, or have wine glasses with a line on them that tells them where to pour the wine to.  And then, you actually have some automated systems which will appropriately measure out a glass of wine based on the wine being poured (some of these systems allow you to purchase wine from a smart card or credit card by the ounce).

And there you have it.  Of course, you’re always happy when they pour you more, and pissed when they pour you less.  But the difference between wine and liquor is that at least they can’t water it down.