BrainStuff Classics: Are Wine Glasses Getting Bigger?

People are drinking more wine than they used to. Could the ever-increasing size of wine glasses be behind this trend? Learn how today's average serving stacks up against history's in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/food-facts/much-does-favorite-wine-glass-hold.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Hey brain Stuff, I'm Lauren vogel Bomb. In today's episode
is another classic from our archives. During this pandemic, we've
all been focused more on health and wellness, and for
many of us that's included taking a look at our
relationship with alcohol. As with anything we consume, portion size matters,

(00:25):
So it was really interesting to revisit this episode, which
deals with the finding that wine glasses have doubled in
size over the past twenty years or so. Hi brain Stuff,
Lauren vogel Bomb. Here. Those of us who imbibe have
all said it, I'll just have one glass of wine,
but even if you stick to that, you might want

(00:45):
to consider how your supposed single serving actually measures up.
That's because, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge,
wine glasses of modern day Brits are now seven times
the size of their imbibing predecessors three years ago, and
those glass sizes have increased the most in the last
two decades, accompanying the rise in vino consumption. Until the

(01:06):
second half of the twentieth century, beer and spirits dominated
the British booz scene, but the drinking of wine nearly
quadrupled between nineteen and two thousand four, likely due to
its affordability, availability, accessibility, and all those successful marketing tactics.
The study authors suggest that when it comes to how
much we're drinking, our glass size probably does matter. For

(01:28):
the study, the researchers examined wine glass capacity over time
to illuminate weather changes in size may have contributed to
that steep rise in wine drinking over the past few decades.
By scouring online info and talking with antiques, glassware experts
and museum curators, the researchers were able to obtain the
measurements of four hundred and eleven glasses from seventeen hundred

(01:48):
to the modern day. What they found might be a
bit disheartening to anyone who leans heavily on that just
one glass line. Wine glass capacity skyrocketed from a mere
sixty six millileaters or two in the seventeen hundreds to
four hundred and seventeen millileaters that's fourteen ounces in the
two thousands, with the average size of a wine glass
in twenty sixteen to twenty seventeen falling around a four

(02:10):
hundred and forty nine millileaters or fifteen ounces for reference,
The size of a standard drink does vary from culture
to culture around the world, but is commonly around ten
grams of pure alcohol per beverage. For wine having an
average of about twelve percent alcohol by volume, that accounts
for just slightly over four ounces or a hundred and
twenty five million leads. Study authors Zorana Zupan said in

(02:33):
the press release, for the most part, this increase was gradual,
but since the nineteen nineties the size has increased rapidly.
Whether this led to the rise in wine consumption in England,
we can't say for certain, but a wine glass three
hundred years ago would have only held about half of
today's small measure. There are lots of reasons those glasses
may have gotten roomier, more affordable glass prices, innovations in technology,

(02:55):
a healthier economy, and an increased societal appreciation for wine.
But it could be the people behind the bar who
have demanded bigger glassware to accommodate the increasingly normalized Megapore.
Despite regulatory requirement in England to make customers aware that
the more modest a hundred and twenty five million eater
glasses are available, most establishments opt to serve two hundred

(03:18):
and fifty million leads at a time, or about one
third of a wine bottle. And if your response to
all this is that you have no problem moderating your
intake in the face of such generous glassware, know that
researchers have also found that the strength of wine has
increased over the years in the UK at least. But
regardless of where you reside, perhaps you'll want to pay

(03:39):
a little more attention to how much wine you're actually doubting,
because apparently just one glass could potentially still be enough
to cause trouble. Today's episode is based on the article
wine glasses have doubled in size since the nineteen nineties
on houstaff works dot com, written by Michelle Konstantinovsky. Brain

(04:00):
Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with
HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clang. Four
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