The Salmanzar
Written By: Michael Keba on Wed, Jan 9th 2008
What the heck is a Salmanazar? Sounds like it could be some kind of ancient Middle Eastern royalty… and one has been sitting on my kitchen counter since I moved into my apartment.
A Salmanazar is 9-liter container of wine, the equivalent of 12 regular 750 mL sized bottles. According to Wikipedia, the name takes root from a biblical figure, interestingly enough, an Assyrian king. Some other traditional bottle sizes are
Magnum = 1.5 liters or 2 bottles
Jeroboam = 3 liters or 4 bottles
Rehoboam = 4.5 liters or 6 bottles
Methuselah = 6 liters or 8 bottles
Balthazar = 12 liters or 16 bottles
Nebuchadnezzar = 15 liters or 20 bottles
The salmanazar in question is a RUTZ Cellars 2000 Maison Grand Cru Russian River Valley Chardonnay. A brief Google search tells me that it was a pretty high quality wine. It is sort of a funny story about how it was acquired.
My roommate had attended a charity auction last summer here in Davis. He went intending to buy something, just because he had never been to an auction before. Unfortunately, everything was selling for high above his price range. Just for the heck of it, he bid a token amount on a bottle of wine. Well, no one else bid, and he wound up winning this enormous bottle for next to nothing.
While working at the wine store last summer, I saw plenty of oversized bottles smaller than this one selling for over a grand. I know 2000 is getting a bit old for a Chardonnay, but my understanding is that wine in a large container like this one ages much more slowly compared to a normal size bottle. I don't think this one is past its prime, provided that it has been taken care of appropriately (which something tells me is not the case). I had actually tried to e-mail RUTZ Cellars a few months ago to see if they had any idea how much this giant bottle is worth, but they never responded. Oh well, my buddy has no intentions of selling his prized possession. He'll make sure that he and a whole bunch of people enjoy it properly.
On other news, I've still been on the grind for a job. I woke up early this morning and e-mailed every professor in the V&E department about getting a research job. After receiving half a dozen prompt replies of "no, sorry" the department chair asked me to meet him in his office. I went, and from the sound of things, I may be well on my way to peeling the skins off of piles of grapes. I can't wait!
