Wine bottle
From EncycloWine
A wine bottle is a bottle used for holding wine, generally made of glass. Some wines are fermented in the bottle, others are bottled only after fermentation. They come in a large variety of sizes, several named for Biblical kings and other figures. The standard bottle contains 750 mL, although this is a relatively recent development.
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Sizes
Champagne
- Quarter-bottle (piccolo): from 0.187 L to 0.2 L
- Half-bottle (demiboite): 0.375 L
- Standard bottle 0.75 L
- Magnum: 1.5 L
- Jeroboam: 3 L
- Rehoboam: 4.5 L
- Methuselah: 6 L
- Salmanazar: 9 L
- Balthazar: 12 L
- Nebuchadnezzar: 15 L
- Melchior: 18 L
- Sovereign: 25 L
Other wines and port
- Half-bottle: 0.375 L
- Standard: 0.75 Lǂ
- Magnum: 1.5 L
- Double Magnum: 3 L
- Jeroboam: 4.5 L§
- Rehoboam: 4.5 L
- Imperial: 6 L
- Salmanazar: 9 L
- Balthazar: 12 L
- Nebuchadnezzar: 15 L
ǂ Sometimes referred to as a "fifth", the old US value of 0.2 gallon or 0.757 L.
§ Size is different from champagne Jeroboams. There are also some 5 L variants.
Shapes
Wine producers in Spain, France and Germany follow the tradition of their local areas in choosing the shape of bottle most appropriate for their wine.
- Port, sherry, and Bordeaux varieties: straight-sided and high-shouldered with a pronounced punt. Port and sherry bottles may have a bulbous neck to collect any residue.
- Burgundies and Rhone varieties: tall bottles with sloping shoulders and a smaller punt.
- Rhine (also known as hock or hoch), Mosel, and Alsace varieties: narrow and tall with little or no punt.
- Champagne and other sparkling wines: thick-walled and wide with a pronounced punt and sloping shoulders.
Many North and South American, South African, and Australian wine producers select the bottle shape they wish to associate their wines with. For instance, a producer who believes his wine is similar to Burgundy may choose to bottle his wine in Burgundy-style bottles.
Other producers (both in and out of Europe) have chosen idiosyncratic bottle styles for marketing purposes. Père Anselme markets its Châteauneuf-du-Pape in bottles that appear half-melted.
The home winemaker may use any bottle he or she wishes, as the shape of the bottle does not affect the taste of the finished product. The sole exception is if the home winemaker is producing sparkling wine, in which case he or she must use bottles designed to handle the excess pressure.
Colors
The traditional colors used for wine bottles are:
- Bordeaux: dark green for reds, light green for dry whites, clear for sweet whites.
- Burgundy and the Rhone: dark green.
- Mosel and Alsace: dark to medium green, although some producers have traditionally used brown.
- Rhine: brown, although some producers have traditionally used green.
Clear bottles have recently become popular with white wine producers in many countries, including Greece, Canada and New Zealand. Most red wine worldwide is still bottled in green glass.
Punts
A punt, also known as a kick-up, is the term used to refer to the dimple at the bottom of a wine bottle. There is no consensus as to the reason why wine bottles today have punts, though everyone seems to be adamant that their explanation is the correct one. The more commonly cited explanations are:
The punt as a historical artifact
- They are an historical remnant of old-fashioned glass-blowing techniques.
- They once had the function of making the bottle less likely to topple over. A bottle designed with a flat bottom only needs a small imperfection to make it unstable. In the past, it may have been safer to give the bottle a dimple to allow for a margin of error.
- They once had (and may still have) the function of strengthening the bottle, particularly useful in the case of sparkling wine.
The punt as having a function
- They allow bottles of sparkling wine to be turned upside-down and then stacked (depending on their shape).
- They allow waiters to pour wine in a fancy way.
- They can make the bottle look bigger.
- In aged wines, sediment deposits at the bottom or side of the bottle (depending on how the wine was stored), which the punt can help to consolidate.
- They help to sell wine to people who believe that a deep punt is an indicator of a high-quality wine.
- They lessen the chance for breaking bottles when cases are stacked on top of one another.
External links
- Wine Bottle Shapes, from The Wine Doctor
