Age more slowly is chemical fact due to the wine to air ratio as you note. Also wine to cork surface area*. In the same fashion, a colder cellar will slow down the aging process and a warmer cellar will speed it up. That is all just chemistry.
i would not deny it. indeed the colder/warmer cellar enhances the point. a colder cellar is a better environment to store and age wine. (as it is having the wine in the larger bottle)
to make the point in an extreme way... most red bordeaux's will age longer than say... a chardonnay (i realize the comparison is poor, but just making the point.)
"Better" is an eye of the beholder thing. Take a 750ml and a 1500ml of the same vintage stored in the same conditions and drink them both at the same time ... which is better?
well.... you must mean which is better in terms of taste. then i agree, a "better taste" is in the eyes of the beholder
when i said better i am referring to the environment in which the wine is surrounded very well described by your example of the cold/warm cellar, in which the wine will age longer (provided the quality and structure is in the wine)
we are getting lost into fine details, and i appreciate the discussion, as a result i started to open my old books in search of the specific quote *which i actually did not find.*
you make good points, and it may boil down to how we understand each specific concept (age better vs age longer). many of the points you bring up i agree with, examples bottle size/drinking audience, variety, and so on. *but they are not relevant to the question* which was:
why is it that larger bottles of wine are not strictly 'double' the price of the smaller one? (i.e. in this particular case 750ml vs. 1.5 ltr.)
As for the assumptions of quality, storage conditions, good year, etc., those are factors in the desirability of the result at any age and bottle size, not something specific to bottle size.
i did not say that it was specific to the bottle size, i was simply trying to establish that all other circumstances were equal so the only variable in the comparison was the two different bottle sizes that would influence the pricing of the wine. (based on a "better aging environment")
as you point out... there are other factors that may be more important in one's preference for the specific bottle size...
thus.... the best answer to the question, (in my opinion) is:
supply & demand, based on personal preference and getting a break in price due to the larger amount purchased. (the best comparison has to be the land price, the larger the parcel, the lesser the price/acre)
and since we are talking bottle sizes and preferences i have discovered (some time ago now) the the 3/4 litre bottle is NOT the ideal size...
for example: dinner for two... one bottle is too little... and two bottles are too much... the ideal size (in my eyes) is not readily available today... (at least for two) |
