UK Docs Call for Smaller Wine Bottle

Britons are downing too much wine, the British Medical Journal concludes, and it has a solution: smaller bottles. “Once two of us have had a glass each, it’s all too tempting to finish the bottle then and there,” wrote one doctor of the standard 750-mililiter size. One UK supermarket has already announced the introduction of  500ml (16.9 oz.) bottles.

Beer remains atop Britain's alcoholic heap, but wine is gaining fast, with consumption up from 10% of all alcohol in 1970 to 28.8% in 2005, the Guardian reports. Couple that with reports that wine is getting stronger, and “it’s no wonder Britain’s middle-aged middle classes are getting wasted,” the Journal writes, pointing to the smaller wine bottles available in France. (More alcohol stories.)