The Lemon Fool

Another Brexit dividend, by the look of it. The govt intends to stamp our sovereignty on the world by introducing pint-sized wine bottles, as distinct from the 750ml standard that's been adopted by all those damn foreigners.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67795075

There doesn't seem much point in arguing with the principle, except that it makes us look petty, and it'll presumably require a new generation of packaging and transport arrangements. (I'd say it will also mean that more fuel will be consumed in the melting-down of the smaller bottles, but maybe that's me getting too petty?)

On the upside, I'll be able to take a scrooge-sized bottle of vino to a party, and nobody will dare to complain. And it'll create lucrative opportunities for booze manufacturers to bamboozle us in the supermarkets by charging differential prices per 100ml whenever we buy our wine in the new britbottle size, as distinct from the international one. Hurrah!

But look on the bright side. It'll mean that a whole bottle of wine will now fit in a beer glass. Don't even ask how much a round will cost.....

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:The govt intends to stamp our sovereignty on the world by introducing pint-sized wine bottles

Funny, I'd never heard of our government-owned wineries and bottling plants. Do they make a profit for us?

Or is this by any chance a theoretical ability for commercial operators, to produce something nobody has asked for and nobody will buy?

Scott.

But why not? It would provide another choice of size for buying bottles of wine. And many older people like me still "think" in pints (and pounds) rather than metric.

And wine by the glass could then be sold in half pint sizes as well, that being a little more than the current largest glass - 250 ml.

Seems a bit pintless to me, no real feelings either way.

Out of interest, has wine ever been sold in pint bottles? I mean in times that readers might remember.

568ml for the bargain price of 750ml...

Lootman wrote:And wine by the glass could then be sold in half pint sizes as well, that being a little more than the current largest glass - 250 ml.

No it couldn't, they're not proposing to change the law to allow that.

Scott.

As Daniel Lambert, wine importer, says:

cut to the chase, it’s absolute boll*cks. Why people can’t use their brain is beyond me.

https://twitter.com/DanielLambert29/sta ... 0102872132

Scott.

Lootman wrote:And wine by the glass could then be sold in half pint sizes as well, that being a little more than the current largest glass - 250 ml.

And it'll all go swimmingly until the Californians decide to send their wine to us in 16-ounce American pints, which are almost 20% smaller than 20-ounce imperial pints. (The "almost" is because their fluid ounces are 4.1% bigger than ours in millilitre terms.) Good luck with the calculator, then. There are reasons why size standardisation works for fluids.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:

Lootman wrote:And wine by the glass could then be sold in half pint sizes as well, that being a little more than the current largest glass - 250 ml.

And it'll all go swimmingly until the Californians decide to send their wine to us in 16-ounce American pints, which are almost 20% smaller than 20-ounce imperial pints. (The "almost" is because their fluid ounces are 4.1% bigger than ours in millilitre terms.) Good luck with the calculator, then. There are reasons why size standardisation works for fluids.

They could just quote the size in fluid ounces, as they do with beer, typically sold in 12 oz bottles or 16 oz "pints".

I fail to see why anyone would object to having more choice. Must be a Remainer thing.

Lootman wrote:I fail to see why anyone would object to having more choice. Must be a Remainer thing.

But it's just an illusion. You won't get more choice.

Scott.

swill453 wrote:

Lootman wrote:I fail to see why anyone would object to having more choice. Must be a Remainer thing.

But it's just an illusion. You won't get more choice.

I may not get a bigger choice of wine but I will get a bigger choice of the sizes in which I can buy wine.

Lootman wrote:

swill453 wrote:But it's just an illusion. You won't get more choice.

I may not get a bigger choice of wine but I will get a bigger choice of the sizes in which I can buy wine.

No, I don't believe you will. A producer would have to ensure making a whole new size of packaging would be profitable, and I think that's very unlikely as there will be negligible demand.

Scott.

swill453 wrote:

Lootman wrote:I may not get a bigger choice of wine but I will get a bigger choice of the sizes in which I can buy wine.

No, I don't believe you will. A producer would have to ensure making a whole new size of packaging would be profitable, and I think that's very unlikely as there will be negligible demand.

That is a separate issue. At least there is a potential increase in the choice of size. The market can decide the rest.

You have no idea what the demand is.

Lootman wrote:
I fail to see why anyone would object to having more choice. Must be a Remainer thing.

Do you really expect your fave wine to be available in both 750ml bottles AND pint bottles?!

Mike4 wrote:

Lootman wrote:I fail to see why anyone would object to having more choice. Must be a Remainer thing.

Do you really expect your fave wine to be available in both 750ml bottles AND pint bottles?!

You can currently buy wine in 500 ml sizes and a pint is not so far off that. So the demand is presumably there for that kind of size. Not everyone wants to drink an entire 750 ml bottle.

swill453 wrote:

Lootman wrote:I fail to see why anyone would object to having more choice. Must be a Remainer thing.

But it's just an illusion. You won't get more choice.

Yes you will!

Get with the program: It means you will have a greater choice of ways of being dazed and confused than you did before Brexit.

Who could possibly object to that? Dammit man, it's what being British and Brexit is all about!

Lootman wrote:You can currently buy wine in 500 ml sizes and a pint is not so far off that. So the demand is presumably there for that kind of size. Not everyone wants to drink an entire 750 ml bottle.

You don't have to drink the full bottle all at once. No current EU ruling to that effect. AFAIK.

XFool wrote:

Lootman wrote:You can currently buy wine in 500 ml sizes and a pint is not so far off that. So the demand is presumably there for that kind of size. Not everyone wants to drink an entire 750 ml bottle.

You don't have to drink the full bottle all at once. No current EU ruling to that effect. AFAIK.

Depends. Fizzy wine will go flat. Or you might be somewhere you cannot store, refrigerate or transport an opened bottle. Might also help those who want to cut down on drinking but lack the will power to open a bottle and not drink it all.

But anyway the point is that you would have extra choice. Nobody would be forcing you to take up that choice if it does not suit your lifestyle. So it seems petty to oppose this.

Lootman wrote:

XFool wrote:You don't have to drink the full bottle all at once. No current EU ruling to that effect. AFAIK.

Depends. Fizzy wine will go flat.

Ah, yes. I missed that. Now that I think about it, wasn't this announced as applying to bottles of "Champagne"?

Yes it was (sort of): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67795075

Pint-sized bottles of still and sparkling wine are to appear on shelves in the UK, the government has said.

"The new 568ml size will offer more choice for customers, according to the Department for Business and Trade.
It also said it will not introduce new rules on selling in imperial measures."

Some sanity remains then, so far...

XFool wrote:

Lootman wrote:You can currently buy wine in 500 ml sizes and a pint is not so far off that. So the demand is presumably there for that kind of size. Not everyone wants to drink an entire 750 ml bottle.

You don't have to drink the full bottle all at once. No current EU ruling to that effect. AFAIK.

There isn't?