There does seem to be a few common shapes, mostly based on the region or style of wine. The three most common shapes are the Bordeaux, Burgundy and Hoch.
1--Bordeaux has straight sides with high/tall shoulders. It is used commonly for the red Bordeaux style wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec and most Meritage or Bordeaux blends. This shape is also used for white wines, such as Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. This bottle has a pronounces punt.
2--Burgundy has gently sloping shoulders and has a fatter girth than other wine bottles. The two most common wines using this shape are Chardonnay and Pinot Noir which are the two key grape varieties used in the Burgundy region of France. In Italy it is used for the Barolo. Also, many wines from the Loire Valley. The punt on the Burgundy is smaller than the Bordeaux.
3--Rhone is similar to the Burgundy but slimmer. Traditional Cotes du Rhone bottles have more angular sloping shoulders, while bottles like Chateauneuf du Pape may beara coat of arms on the neck. Some New World Shiraz use this shape too.
4--Champagne also has a gently sloping shoulder, however, it is a heavy, thick glass with a pronounced/deep punt to keep pressure inside the bottle.
5 & 6--Hoch is more slender and narrower in style and slope of the shoulder and taller compared to the previous shapes. Depending on the region of origin and glass color, the bottle carries different names: Mosel in a green bottle from Germany, Alsace in a green bottle from France, or Rhine is a brown bottle from Germany.
7--Fortified Wines such as Port, Madeira, and Sherry, are in sturdy bottles that sometimes have a bulge in the neck. Many of these wines are sealed with a cork stopper rather than a long cork.
8--Unique Bottles As mentioned earlier, there are no hard and fast rules to bottle shapes. Sometimes it's fun just to display something different.
So now with a little more knowledge of what wines may be in stored in certain bottle shapes, I might have a head start in determining what I'm drinking in a blind tasting!
Cheers!
Lisa
WINE WORD OF THE WEEK
PUNT: A punt, also known as a kick-up, refers to the dimple at the bottom of a wine bottle. There is no consensual explanation for its purpose. The more commonly cited explanations include:
- It is a historical remnant from the era when wine bottles were free blown using a blowpipe and pontil. This technique leaves a punt mark on the base of the bottle; by indenting the point where the pontil is attached, this scar would not scratch the table or make the bottle unstable.
- 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 much/most of it from being poured into the glass;
- It increases the strength of the bottle, allowing it to hold the high pressure of sparkling wine/champagne.
- It provides a grip for riddling a bottle of sparkling wine manually in the traditional champagne production process.
- It consumes some volume of the bottle, allowing the bottle to be larger for the same amount of wine, which may impress the purchaser.
- Taverns had a steel pin set vertically in the bar. The empty bottle would be thrust bottom-end down onto this pin, puncturing a hole in the top of the punt, guaranteeing the bottle could not be refilled [folklore].
- It prevents the bottle from resonating as easily, decreasing the likelihood of shattering during transportation.
- It allows bottles to be more easily stacked end to end.
- Bottles could be stacked in cargo holds on ships without rolling around and breaking.
- Punts are also used to help pour the wine, providing a grip for the thumb on the bottom bottle for easy pouring.
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