Information about Wine Bottles

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. Wine bottles are usually sealed with cork, but screw-top caps are becoming popular, and there are several other methods used to seal a bottle.^[1][2][3]

Sizes

The chart below^[4] expresses the sizes of various wine bottles in multiples relating to a standard bottle of wine, which is 0.75 litres.

Bottle Name	Name's Origin	Champagne	Bordeaux	Burgundy	Volume in Litres
		Equivalent standard bottles
Piccolo1	"Small" in Italian	¼	n/a	n/a	0.1875
Chopine	traditional French unit of volume	n/a	⅓	n/a	0.250
Demi²	"Half" in French	½	½	½	0.375
Clavelin³		n/a	n/a	n/a	0.620
Standard		1	1	1	0.750
Magnum		2	2	2	1.5
Marie Jeanne4		n/a	3	n/a	2.25
Double Magnum		n/a	4	n/a	3.0
Jeroboam	Biblical Figure	4	6	4	3.0/4.5
Rehoboam	Biblical Figure	6	n/a	6	4.5
Imperial		n/a	8	n/a	6.0
Methuselah	Biblical Figure	8	n/a	8	6.0
Salmanazar	Biblical Figure	12	n/a	12	9.0
Balthazar	New Testament Figure	16	16	16	12.0
Nebuchadnezzar	Biblical Figure	20	20	20	15.0
Melchior	New Testament Figure, Jewish surname	24	24	24	18.0
Solomon	Biblical Figure	28	n/a	n/a	20.0
Sovereign		33⅓	n/a	n/a	25.0
Primat		36	n/a	n/a	27.0
Melchizedek	Biblical Figure	40	n/a	n/a	30.0

¹ Also known as a quarter bottle or snipe.
² Also known as a split.
³ Primarily used in vin jaune
⁴Also known as a Tregnum or Tappit Hen in the port wine trade

History of bottle sizes in the USA

For many years, the U.S. standard (non-metric) wine and liquor bottle was the "fifth" (1/5 gallon, or approximately 26 fl. oz.); some beverages also came in half-gallon and one-gallon sizes.

In 1979, with U.S. manufacturers of wine and many other beverages considered adopting the metric system, the government set a requirement that all bottles be exactly 750ml. Around the same time the European Union asked winemakers to agree on a single size to standardize on. They chose 750ml, as did many other countries, in part so that they could ship to the US with ease.^[5]

Shapes

Wine producers in Portugal, 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 Rhône 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.
• In Germany the bottle shape is generally reserved for higher-quality wines from Franconia. (See )

Many North and South American, South African, and Australasian 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. Pere-Anselme markets its Châteauneuf-du-Pape in bottles that appear half-melted. The Moselland company of Germany has a riesling with a bottle in the shape of a house cat.

The home wine maker may use any bottle, as the shape of the bottle does not affect the taste of the finished product. The sole exception is in producing sparkling wine, where thicker-walled bottles should be used 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 amber.
• Rhine: amber, 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, refers to the dimple at the bottom of a wine bottle. There is no consensus explanation for its purpose. The more commonly cited explanations include:<ref name="Johnson000" />

• it is an historical remnant of old-fashioned glass-blowing techniques;
• it 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 -- the dimple historically allowed for a larger margin of error;
• it consolidates sediment deposits in a thick ring at the bottom of the bottle, preventing it from being poured into the glass;^[6]
• it allows a bottle of sparkling wine to be turned upside-down and then stacked (depending on its shape);
• it increases the strength of the bottle, allowing it to hold the high pressure of sparkling wine/champagne;
• it can make the bottle look bigger, impressing purchasers
• it holds the bottles in place on pegs of a conveyor belt as they go through the filling process in manufacturing plants; and
• it accommodates the pourer's thumb for stability and ease of pouring.

Notes and references

See also

• Glass Container Industry
• Tunc
• Alternative wine closures

External links

• Wine Bottle Shapes, from CellarNotes
• Wine Bottle Shapes, from The Wine Doctor
• Jeroboam used as early as 1725, from maisons-champagne.com