Defining Wooden Wine Crates, Boxes and Cases

When we started Winepine in 2004, one of the biggest challenges we had was to figure out how to describe what we were selling. This sounds kind of strange, but no one was really selling wine crates and boxes when we started. There were all sorts of names floating around the wine industry to describe them such as: Wooden wine crates, wine boxes, wine cases, wine storage boxes etc.

The main problem was that it's difficult to know exactly what our clients' wanted when they placed an order. Clients would call a 12 bottle wine crate a wine case, and a 6 bottle wine box a wine crate. There was a problem of clarity, and it would be easy to get an order wrong. We had to make the process simple and universal.

There are many kinds of differently sized wine crates, boxes and cases. The single bottle crate size alone has 5 different variations! Below are the most common:

• Single size for 750 ML bottles
• Magnum size for 1500 ML bottles
• Double magnum size for 3000 ML bottles
• Jeroboam size for 4500 ML bottles
• Imperial size for 6000 ML bottles

Single bottles come in many other sizes, but the above are what you'll find stored and protected in wooden wine crates. The single and magnum sizes are fairly common, but the others are extremely rare. Wineries generally make those for display purposes only.

Next, we had to describe the single bottle size. The first thought of a crate was that it has two long sides and two short sizes. This is how we would describe anything from the single bottle category  They would all be defined as a crate. Single bottle 750 crate, Magnum single bottle crate, double magnum single bottle crate etc. We would take the same approach with 12 bottle. It has two long sides and two short sides.

There's another very rare crate called the 24 half bottle size. These are designed to hold twenty-four 375 ML bottles (half-bottles). We would describe these as crates as well, because they have two large and two short sides. They're just taller than 12 bottle crates.

On to the boxes. The basic definition of a box is that each side is the same size as the others. This definition most closely resembles the 6 bottle size. The approx. dimensions of the 6 bottle wine box is 13" L X 11" W X 7" H. This is for the 6 bottle box meant to hold 750 ML sized bottles. There's also one for magnum bottles, but this sized wooden wine box is more rare.

Lastly, there's the wine case. We more or less used the suitcase as a reference point. The wine industry points to a case of wine as a lot of several bottles. Unfortunately we don't have this luxury, as none of our cases include the wine! What we dis is describe 3 and 6 bottle flats as cases. This is because the 3 and 6 bottle flats look the most like suitcases. Below is a picture of a 6 bottle flat wooden wine case:

The Bond is a special piece, and is slightly larger than a standard 6 bottle flat case. The three bottle flat is approx. half the size. Most 6 bottle flats are: 20" L X 13" W X 5" H.

To sum it all up:

Wine Crates: Single bottle, 12 bottle and 24 half bottle

Wine Boxes: 6 Bottle for 750's and 6 bottle for magnum bottles

Wine Cases: 6 bottle flats and 3 bottle flats

Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions.

Patrick
www.winepine.com