Bottle size - halves and small

Half-bottles can provide a wonderfully user-friendly format for certain wines. Top-end Bordeaux and Burgundy becomes more accessible in 375ml – not just in terms of price, but also with regard to ageability, wine in smaller bottles evolving at a faster rate, thereby allowing its full complexity to emerge sooner. Other wines can be suited to such a format purely from a volume perspective – fortified and sweet wines, for instance, presented as an after-dinner treat or with cheese, suddenly become much more tempting to open – and consume – in such modest size…