jeroboam

Thanks, jmp! Very interesting. Aren't Balthazar and Melchior the traditional names of the three Magi? I wonder why Caspar is missing?

The reason why biblical names were chosen for these larger sizes is unknown. The term Jeroboam appears to have been used in Bordeaux from around 1725. Adopted in Champagne, the other bottles were probably named simply by analogy with the first in the series. Jeroboam was the founder and first king of the kingdom of Israel at the beginning of the first millennium before Christ. It is curious to note that Eustache Deschamps lists Jeroboam, Roboan (Roboam or Rehoboam) and Balthazar in his Balade MCCXLIX. As for the explanation of why Jeroboam was chosen by the wine-makers of Bordeaux, perhaps the answer lies in the Bible, in which Jeroboam is described as a man of great value; a jeroboam of Château Latour is undoubtedly a bottle of great value!- UNION of CHAMPAGNE HOUSES

Biblical champagne bottle sizes:
Jeroboam (Founder and first king of Israel, 931-910 BC)
Rehoboam, son of Solomon (King of Judah, 922-908 BC)
Methuselah (Biblical patriarch who lived to the age of 969)
Salmanazar (King of Assyria, 859-824 BC)
Balthazar (Regent of Babylon, son of Nabonide, 539BC)
Nebuchadnezzar (King of Babylon, 605-562 BC).

Other sizes:
Melchior
Solomon
Primat
Melchizedek

JMP, any idea how this name of a Biblical king came to be associated with a big bottle of vino?

A large champagne bottle, 4 - 6 regular bottles or 3 - 4½ litres (140 - 210 oz = 7 - 10½ imperial pints, 8¾ - 13-and-a-bit US pints)

I think I've seen this word before. It brought back old, old memories of religion class... like third-grade religion class...