🍷 Clavelin

The clavelin is a squat bottle holding 620 millilitres. It is used in the French Jura for "yellow wine", vin jaune. This is a special wine made from the Savagnin grape and aged for a long time under a layer of yeast, without topping up the barrels.

The 620 ml volume is not accidental. It is said that this is about what remains of a litre of wine after six years and three months in barrel. The rest evaporates. So the bottle recalls the long process of maturing.

The clavelin is one of the special formats among wine bottle sizes. It cannot be replaced by a regular 0.75-litre bottle: it is part of the name and the tradition. The shape is low and wide, which sets it apart from others. For Jura wines it became a symbol. In this way the bottle tells about the wine without words. This bottle is easy to recognise by its low shape, and it is clear at once that the contents are a special Jura wine.