Whisky Advocate: Whisky Bottles May Soon Become A Little Smaller

In the final week of 2020, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) quietly announced it would now accept additional “standards of fill”—bottle sizes—for spirits. Normally such minutiae wouldn’t be particularly newsworthy, but one of the newly permitted sizes is stirring excitement among whisky lovers. Most of the world uses 700-ml. as its standard spirits bottle size, rather than the 750-ml. bottle that’s been the requirement in the U.S. With 700-ml. spirits bottles now allowed, along with a few other sizes, whisky drinkers may soon be looking at a wider array of options on the shelf.

The 700-ml. is especially relevant to American Scotch fans, who have long missed out on rare or highly allocated whiskies because, for many companies, the extra cost of producing and filling a different-sized bottle wasn’t worth it on such a small scale. “This change allows us to introduce the majority of our global portfolio into the American market, including brands like The Character of Islay Whisky Co. and Darkness,” says Juan-Marc Correia, global head of sales at Atom Brands. Whisky Advocate has the full story.—Susannah Skiver Barton

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