Thursday, December 28, 2017

Why Are Large Format Champagnes Named After Biblical Kings

Some time ago (2013) I blogged about Champagne for Valentine's Day. I got the illustration from Vintage Direct that has an excellent and comprehensive article on 2.10 Making Sparkling Wine. When I blogged about Champagne for Valentine's Day, although I included this illustration, I wasn't curious enough to find out why large format Champagne had strange sounding names, beginning with the 3 liter format called Jeroboam.
I am more curious today, so looking on the Internet, I located a site Why Are Extremely Large Wine Bottles Named after Biblical Kings? that provided the explanation. The names of the larger format bottles are those of kings mentioned in the Bible:
  • 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)
The site goes on to theorize why the bottles are named after Biblical Kings. This answer was not easy to come by since there are many times this question has been posted on the Internet. Most agree that the Jeroboam was the first named large format bottle and that the other biblical names were imitations of this, probably humorously intended. The earliest known written appearance of the use of "Jeroboam" can be traced back to an 1806 work by Sir Walter Scott that speaks of making “a brandy jeroboam on a frosty morning”. 2
On Mosaic, the author of this article makes a serendipitous discovery while researching "jeroboam". A breeze blew the pages of the OED that he was looking at to the entry "jorum" defined in the OED as “a large drinking bowl or vessel; also the contents of this; especially, a punch bowl”. OED added that “it has been conjectured to be the same as the name of Joram, who ‘brought with him vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and vessels of brass’ (2 Samuel 8:10). Cf. JEROBOAM.”2
The word "jorum" was used by the Scottish. Robert Burns’s 1791 Scots dialect poem “O May, Thy Morn,” which offers the toast:
“And here’s to them that like oursel [ourselves]/ Can push about the jorum!”.
“To push about the jorum” was a Scottish expression for participating in an evening of social drinking at which a large pot of liquor was passed around a table.
But the author confesses that to go from jorum-->joram is a stretch, and to go to jeroboam is yet another stretch. So, shall the naming of large format Champagnes with the names of Biblical Kings forever remain a mystery?
Doesn't matter, if you're ever in possession of a large format Champagne, just "push about the jorum" and enjoy!

References:
1. Vintage Direct, 2.10 Making Sparkling Wine.
2. Mosaic, Why Are Extremely Large Wine Bottles Named after Biblical Kings?.

No comments:

Post a Comment