Study: As wine glasses grow, we chug more
Cersei Lannister on “Game of Thrones” must have missed the memo that her wine goblet should’ve been much smaller.
Wine glasses have expanded in size nearly sevenfold over the past 300 years, scientists at the University of Cambridge in England found, with their growth spurt surging most sharply over the last 20 years — in line with consumption rates.
The average wine glass held just over 2 ounces in the 1700s and glasses today hold more than 15 ounces on average, according to the study. There was an increase of 2 ounces between the early 2000s and 2017 alone. This is, the researchers said, perhaps a reason why people overdrink.
“Wine will no doubt be a feature of some merry Christmas nights, but when it comes to how much we drink, wine glass size probably does matter,” Theresa Marteau, lead author of the study, told the Guardian.
Researchers inspected glassware from the 18th century held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford from the collection at Buckingham Palace and modern-day home furnishing catalogues from John Lewis.
“Wine glasses became a common receptacle from which wine was drunk around 1700,” the study’s co-author Zorana Zupan said. “This followed the development of lead crystal glassware in the late 17th century, which led to the manufacture of less fragile and larger glasses than was previously possible.”
The study notes that alcohol is the fifth leading risk-factor for premature death in high-income countries around the world. In England in particular, where the study was conducted, the researchers said that the type and amount of alcohol consumed has changed over the last three centuries. Wine consumption, specifically, increased by four times between 1960 and 1980 and then doubled by 2004.
“Our findings suggest that the capacity of wine glasses in England increased significantly over the past 300 years,” Zupan added. “Since the 1990s, the size has increased rapidly.”