How Many Bottles Are In A Case Of Wine?

I don't know about you, but I've got a lot of friends who are wine enthusiasts — so much so that they prefer to buy their wine by the case and not by the bottle. It's not just because they love their cabernet sauvignon that much, but it's also because they can catch a potential price break whenever they buy it in bulk. Plus, a specialized wine retailer is also bound to take care of their wine stock better than a grocery store. That being said, if you're not a bulk wine drinker, you're probably wondering just how many bottles are in a standard case of wine.

A standard case contains 12 750-milliliter bottles, which comes out to about nine liters of the good stuff. A case can be a little bit on the heavy side, at 30 to 40 pounds, so you better haul that thing around carefully; you don't want to end up with a sore back. Note the word "standard," however, because that implies the existence of cases of wine that aren't the same size, and indeed, there are different sizes you might see when shopping for certain categories of wine.

Wine bottles themselves do come in non-750-milliliter sizes, including magnums. Magnum bottles contain 1.5 liters of wine (so double the standard-sized bottle), which means less of them fit in a case. For magnum cases, you can expect six to a box. I called my local liquor store to ask about the smaller-sized bottles, which is where things aren't nearly as cut and dry. Half bottles, which are half the size of regular wine bottles, tend to come 12 to a case, though that can vary depending on the type — high-end half-bottle wines can come in six or three-packs. Split bottles, which hold 187 milliliters of wine, have no particular standard case size.

Retailers will often let you mix and match which wines you get in cases, and variety is the spice of life, so why not mix up which types you get? And besides, even if you don't get around to drinking it right away, as long as you have the right environment for it, you can hang onto it for a while, though you don't necessarily need to age those reds (a common wine myth). Then you can pluck out a bottle for a nice dinner, to pair wine with hot dogs, or for when friends come visit. And if you're new to vino altogether, here's our own guide to enjoying red wine for beginners. Who knows? You might find yourself loving it enough to start buying it by the case.