Posted: August 18, 2022
People drink less in restaurants when wine is served with smaller glasses and less at home from smaller bottles of wine. Would they also drink less wine at home when drinking from smaller glasses? And how much wine would people drink when using smaller glasses and smaller bottles? The results of the first study to address these questions – https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.16005– suggests that consuming wine at home from smaller glasses could reduce consumption by about 6.5%. The effect of drinking wine in smaller bottles is less certain.
During two 14-day study periods, 217 households in the UK that drank wine regularly purchased a pre-set volume of wine – based on their usual weekly consumption – in either 75cl or 37.5cl bottles, in randomised order. They we also randomised to drink from either smaller glasses (290ml) or larger wine glasses (350ml).
Using smaller glasses reduced the amount of wine drunk by around 6.5% – although there is some uncertainty around this effect. Drinking from smaller bottles reduced the amount of wine drunk by about 3.6% but there is greater uncertainty around this effect.
These findings suggest that using smaller glasses may help reduce wine consumption at home. The effect of drinking from half sized bottles is more uncertain for now.
To read the findings of the study in full, click https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.16005.
Reference
Mantzari E, Ventsel M, Ferrar J, Pilling M, Hollands GJ, Marteau TM. (2022) Impact of wine bottle and glass sizes on wine consumption at home: a within and between households randomised controlled trial. Addiction doi: 10.1111/add.16005
