Wine magnums aren’t just for Christmas – or even champagne

There are solid scientific reasons for bottling wine in a magnum and others that aren’t – one of which being that they are simply great fun

There are many reasons you may want to buy a magnum, and those reasons multiply and proliferate around this time of the year. Your usual night in with your partner becomes a party for six. Dinner with the family becomes an enormous pre-Christmas do, with thirsty adults and kids in the way everywhere. And watering the masses can get expensive, not to mention cumbersome.

I often recommend boxed wines for this specific quandary. I’ve written before about the joys of bag-in-box, but to give you the top line: it’s at least two bottles in a fridge-friendly box, and it stays good for up to six weeks. But if you prefer the allure of a glass bottle, and the idea of all attention in the room being drawn to what’s in your hand as you enter it, then a magnum might be a fun thing to unsheathe during the festivities, after the first cocktails have been sipped and glasses are empty.