Salmanazar (9 L)

What is Salmanazar (9 L)? Salmanazar (9 L) is a large-format wine bottle holding exactly nine litres, the equivalent of twelve standard 750 ml bottles in a single vessel. It is used principally for Champagne, where it slots neatly between the Methuselah (6 L) and the Balthazar (12 L), and is also produced for still wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy. The name is the French rendering of Shalmaneser, a Neo-Assyrian king, in keeping with the long-standing Champagne convention of naming oversize bottles after biblical and Mesopotamian rulers. For collectors and hosts alike, it is a true grand format — impressive on the table and built for occasions that deserve more than a magnum.

Size and Place in the Hierarchy

At nine litres exactly, the Salmanazar pours the equivalent of twelve regular bottles, two Jeroboams (3 L), or roughly one and a half Methuselahs (6 L). In the Champagne lineage of formats — Jeroboam, Rehoboam, Methuselah, Salmanazar, Balthazar, Nebuchadnezzar — it occupies the step just above the Methuselah and just below the Balthazar, making it one of the larger bottles you are likely to encounter outside of auction lots and prestige cuvées.

Although the format is most associated with Champagne houses, the same nine-litre capacity is also bottled for still wines, particularly from Bordeaux and Burgundy estates that produce limited runs of grand formats for collectors and on-trade clients.

Origin of the Name

'Salmanazar' is the French/Latinised form of Shalmaneser, referring most directly to Shalmaneser V, the Neo-Assyrian king who reigned from 727 to 722 BC and was the son of Tiglath-Pileser III. His Akkadian name, Salmānu-ašarēd, translates roughly as 'Salmanu is foremost.'

The choice fits a broader Champagne tradition of borrowing names from Old Testament and Near Eastern monarchs — Jeroboam, Rehoboam, Methuselah, Balthazar, Nebuchadnezzar — to dignify the largest bottles in the cellar. You will sometimes see the spelling 'Salmanasar' or 'Salmanazor'; all three variants describe the same nine-litre format.

When to Choose a Salmanazar

A Salmanazar is built for celebration and for cellaring. It is the kind of bottle reserved for prestige cuvées, large gatherings, anniversaries, and auction-grade lots, where the sheer scale of the format becomes part of the event itself.

Collectors prize large formats for a more practical reason as well: the ratio of headspace oxygen to wine volume is lower than in a standard bottle, which allows the wine inside to age more slowly and more gracefully. For Champagne and serious still wines intended for long keeping, a Salmanazar is not just a showpiece but a genuinely better-behaved vessel over time.