Fill, not bottle

What is regulated

On this page11

The section is about quantities So a non-standard bottle is not prohibited Which makes the four non-conforming containers awkward, not illegal And the practical cost is headspace The 24 oz bottle is the near miss So that one is genuinely usable There is a tolerance provision as well That cross-reference is not reproduced here Nominal capacity and fill are different numbers Read our capacities as a starting point References

It is a standard of fill. Which is the thing most often got wrong about it.

The section is about quantities

It authorizes standards of fill, which are the quantities wine may be bottled and labeled in. It is not a list of approved bottles.

So a non-standard bottle is not prohibited

A 946 millilitre bottle filled to 750 millilitres and labeled as 750 is a standard fill in an oversized container.

Which makes the four non-conforming containers awkward, not illegal

Our 24 oz and 32 oz bottles can be used. They cannot be filled to their nominal capacity and labeled as that quantity.

And the practical cost is headspace

946 millilitres filled to 750 leaves nearly 200 millilitres of air, which for a fermented product is both an oxidation problem and a presentation one.

The 24 oz bottle is the near miss

709.764 millilitres against a 700 millilitre standard. Under ten millilitres of headspace, which is a normal fill level anyway.

So that one is genuinely usable

Fill to 700, label 700, and the headspace is unremarkable. The gap is small enough to disappear into ordinary practice.

There is a tolerance provision as well

"The tolerances in fill are the same as are allowed by Sec. 4.37 in respect to statement of net contents on labels." So the fill figure is not required to be exact to the millilitre.

That cross-reference is not reproduced here

What the tolerances actually are lives in another section, and this property does not quote it. The existence of a tolerance is the point.

Nominal capacity and fill are different numbers

Which is worth saying plainly, because our capacity field is a nominal capacity. It is the volume of the container, not the quantity you will declare.

Read our capacities as a starting point

A 473 millilitre bottle is the right vessel for a 473 millilitre fill. Whether it fills to exactly that in practice is a filling-line question.

References

27 CFR 4.72(a), authorized standards of fill, in the order printed: 3 liters, 2.25 liters, 1.8 liters, 1.5 liters, 1 liter, 750 milliliters, 720 milliliters, 700 milliliters, 620 milliliters, 600 milliliters, 568 milliliters, 550 milliliters, 500 milliliters, 473 milliliters, 375 milliliters, 360 milliliters, 355 milliliters, 330 milliliters, 300 milliliters, 250 milliliters, 200 milliliters, 187 milliliters, 180 milliliters, 100 milliliters, 50 milliliters. The section also provides that "Wine may be bottled or packed in containers of 4 liters or larger if the containers are filled and labeled in quantities of even liters (4 liters, 5 liters, 6 liters, etc.)", and that "The tolerances in fill are the same as are allowed by Sec. 4.37 in respect to statement of net contents on labels." law.cornell.edu

The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 19 October 2026. This group returns 105 rows: 14 containers and 91 closures, the smallest container count of any property in this library. Ten of the fourteen sit on an authorized standard of fill: three at 354.882 mL, which is the 355 mL standard, and seven at 473.176 mL, which is the 473 mL standard. Four do not: one at 709.764 mL, which misses the 700 mL standard by 9.764 mL, and three at 946.352 mL, whose nearest standard is 1 liter. 13 are glass and 1 is PET. 9 clear, 4 amber, 1 frosted clear glass. 8 glass boston rounds, 3 glass sauce bottles, 1 glass beverage bottle, 1 glass syrup bottle, 1 PET imperial bullet cosmo. Necks: 8 at 28-400, 3 at 38-400, 2 at 33-400, 1 at 28-410, all continuous thread.

Written from 27 CFR 4.72 and 4.10 and from the catalog as it stood on 19 October 2026. The standards of fill regulate the quantity bottled rather than the bottle, so a non-standard container filled to a standard quantity is awkward rather than prohibited. Whether part 4 applies at all turns on the alcohol content of the product, which is not something a container catalog knows. Nothing here addresses bonded premises, formula approval, label approval, excise tax, net contents formatting, or state law. This catalog holds no crown cap, swing top, cork or champagne hood, so a sparkling product cannot be closed from it.