(FORTUNE Magazine) – Next time you throw a party, wow 'em with a Nebuchadnezzar. Named after a Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzars are the biggest bottles of champagne money can buy. Standing just over 2 1/2-feet tall, Nebuchadnezzars hold the equivalent of 20 regular bottles of the top-shelf nectar of conviviality--enough to fill the glasses of 160 of your closest friends.

In theory. There's a problem with Nebuchadnezzars: If, like some Nebuchadnezzar buyers, you choose not to open them up in the usual way, which is to say by pulling out the cork, it's not always safe to drink from them.

Say you pay $2,200 for a bottle of Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial. Moet & Chandon might send one of its master saberers--they employ two of them full-time--to your party to chop off the bottle's neck with a sword. It's a great show, but no one guarantees that your guests won't end up drinking a few shards of glass along with their bubbly.

So then you have 160 thirsty guests staring bug-eyed at this huge bottle of undrinkable champagne. What's a conscientious host to do? Moet & Chandon would encourage you to spend an extra $1,000 or so on a couple of cases of regular-sized bottles of Brut Imperial. Compared with the Nebuchadnezzar, a case is a bargain: It's like getting four extra bottles of champagne for half the price, and this time you can even drink it.

--Ed Brown