Lifestyle

Wine glasses are seven times bigger than in the 1700s

Next time you drink wine, take note of the size of the glass — you may inadvertently drink more than you planned.

The size of wine glasses in England has grown almost sevenfold since the 1700s, from 2.2 ounces in the 18th century to 15 ounces in 2017, according to research at the University of Cambridge, likely due to the higher demand of larger wine glasses from the US. The researchers looked at antique wine glasses from museums in the UK catalogs and compared them to current-day stemware and noticed a sharp increase after the 1990s.

Modern wine glasses don’t look much like they did in the 1700s, though. In the 20th century, they began changing shapes and sizes to accommodate different types of wines. Wider, round glasses are best for earthy red wines, while thinner, narrower glasses are best for white wines, said Theresa Marteau, director of the behavior and health research unit at the University of Cambridge. There’s a greater appreciation for wine today, with “larger glasses considered important in such appreciation,” she added.

Larger glassware and tableware means higher rates of consumption, and wine is no exception. As wine has become more affordable and available, it has also become more popular, especially since the 1960s. Between 1960 and 1980, wine drinking was quadrupled and doubled again between 1980 and 2004. Americans consumed about 789 million gallons of wine last year, up from 27 million in 1940, when the Wine Institute first started recording this data.

Wine consumption has benefits and risks. Red wine can help your heart and brain, according to a report published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, because the metabolites in wine can prevent cells from dying from stress conditions often associated with neurodegenerative disorders.

It can also reduce the likelihood of heart attacks: according to another 2003 study, moderate-drinking men were 30 percent to 35 percent less likely to have a heart attack than those who did not. Yet another study from 2016 found women who were low or moderate drinkers with consistency had the lowest rates of mortality compared to those who never drank or drank much more than one glass a day.