Awine bottle is abottle, generally aglass bottle, that is used for holdingwine. Some wines arefermented in the bottle while others are bottled only after fermentation. Recently the bottle has become a standard unit of volume to describe sales in the wine industry, measuring 750 millilitres (26.40 imp fl oz; 25.36 US fl oz). Wine bottles are produced, however, in a variety of volumes and shapes.^[1]

Wine bottles are traditionally sealed with acork, butscrew-top caps are becoming popular, and there are severalother methods used to seal a bottle.^[2][3][4]

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Many traditional wine bottle sizes are named forBiblical kings and historical figures.^[5] The chart below^[6] lists the sizes of various wine bottles in multiples relating to a standard bottle of wine, which is 0.75litres (0.20 US gal; 0.16 imp gal) (six 125 mL servings). The "wineglassful"—an official unit of theapothecaries' system of weights—is much smaller at 2.5 imp fl oz (71 mL).

Mostchampagne houses are unable to carry outsecondary fermentation in bottles larger than a magnum due to the difficulty inriddling large, heavy bottles. After the secondary fermentation completes, the champagne must be transferred from the magnums into larger bottles, which results in a loss of pressure. Some believe this re-bottling exposes the champagne to greater oxidation and therefore results in an inferior product compared to champagne which remains in the bottle in which it was fermented.^[7]

* For many years, the US standard (non-metric) wine andliquor bottle was the "fifth", meaning one-fifth of aUS gallon, or 25.6 US fluid ounces (757 mL; 26.6 imp fl oz). Some beverages also came in tenth-gallon [12.8 US fluid ounces (379 mL; 13.3 imp fl oz)], eighth-gallon [1 US pint, or 16 US fluid ounces (473 mL; 16.7 imp fl oz)], sixth-gallon [22 US fluid ounces (651 mL; 22.9 imp fl oz)], fourth-gallon [1 US quart, or 32 US fluid ounces (946 mL; 33.3 imp fl oz)], half-gallon [64 US fluid ounces (1,890 mL; 66.6 imp fl oz)] and one-gallon [128 US fluid ounces (3,790 mL; 133 imp fl oz)] sizes.^[13] In 1979, the US adopted the metric system for liquor bottles, with the basic wine bottle becoming 750 mL, as in Europe.

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Wine producers inPortugal,Italy,Spain,France andGermany follow the tradition of their local areas in choosing the shape of bottle most appropriate for their wine.

• Port,sherry, andBordeaux varieties: straight-sided and high-shouldered with a pronouncedpunt. Port and sherry bottles may have a bulbous neck to collect any residue.
• Burgundies andRhône varieties: tall bottles with sloping shoulders and a smaller punt.
• Schlegel variety, predominantly used in German wine growing regions: similar to Burgundy bottles, but more slender and elongated.
• Rhine (also known ashock or hoch),Mosel, andAlsace 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 (resembling Burgundy bottles).
• German wines fromFranconia: theBocksbeutel bottle.
• TheChianti and some other Italian wines: thefiasco, a round-bottomed flask encased in a straw basket. This is more often used for everydaytable wines; many of the higher-grade Chianti producers have switched to Bordeaux-type bottles.^[14]

Many North and South American, South African, and Australasian wine producers select the bottle shape with which they wish to associate their wines. For instance, a producer who believes his wine is similar to Burgundy may choose to bottle his wine in Burgundy-style bottles.^{[citation needed]}

Other producers (both in and out of Europe) have chosen idiosyncratic bottle styles for marketing purposes. Pere-Anselme markets itsChâteauneuf-du-Pape in bottles that appear half-melted. The Moselland company ofBernkastel-Kues in Germany has aRiesling with a bottle in the shape of a stylized cat.^[15] The British companyGarçon Wines makes a flat wine bottle from recycled PET which is flat enough to fit through a letterbox and hence can be delivered by post.^[16][17]

The homewine 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 producingsparkling wine, where thicker-walled bottles should be used to handle the excess pressure.

Most wine bottles standards have a bore (inner neck) diameter of 18.5 mm at the mouth of the bottle and increase to 21 mm before expanding into the full bottle.

• 
  A bottle fromBordeaux: (a bordelaise)
• 
  A bottle fromBurgundy: (a bourguignonne)
• 
  Bottles fromChampagne: (champagnes)
• 
  A bottle fromAlsace: (a flute)
• 
  A bottle fromProvence: (a flute with corset, or flute provençale, or flute quille)
• 
  A bottle fromJura
  (a jurassienne)
• 
  A bottle ofyellow wine fromJura: (aclavelin)
• 
  A bottle fromMuscadet: (a muscadet)
• 
  Bottles fromGaillac: (some gaillacoises)
• 
  Bottles ofVinho Verde in plastic (ofgarrafões)
• 
  Bottles fromFranconia: (abocksbeutel)
• 
  A bottle fromChianti (afiasco)
• 
  A bottle ofice wine

Commercial corked wine bottles typically have a protective sleeve called a foil (commonly referred to as a "capsule") covering the top of the bottle, the purpose of which is to protect thecork from being gnawed away byrodents or infested with thecork weevil and to serve as collar to catch small drips when pouring. The foil also serves as a decorative element of the bottle's label. Foils were historically made oflead, but research showed that trace amounts of toxic lead could remain on the lip of the bottle and mix with the poured wine,^[18] so lead foil wrapping was slowly phased out, and by the 1990s,^[19] most foils were made oftin, heat-shrink plastic (polyethylene,PVC),aluminium or polylaminate aluminium.

Sealing wax is sometimes used, or the foil can be omitted entirely.^[20] In the US, the FDA officially banned lead foils on domestic and imported wine bottles as of 1996.^[21]

Some bottles of wine have a paper strip beneath the foil, as a seal of authenticity, which must be broken before the bottle can be uncorked. Bottles of high-endRioja wine may have a covering of gold wire netting, SpaniardCamilo Hurtado de Amézaga,Marqués de Riscal founded a winery in Rioja, in 1858, naming it after his own noble title, which had been created in 1708 byPhilip V.^{[citation needed]} He produced award-winning wines which became the preferred wines ofKing Alfonso XII. Camilo Hurtado de Amézaga invented a wire netting that covered his bottle, thereby preventing counterfeiters from substituting the wine, since it was impossible to remove the netting without breaking it. Modern day bottles of Rioja carry a much finer wire netting as a decoration.^[22]

A punt, also known as a kick-up, is the dimple at the bottom of a wine bottle. There is no consensus explanation for its purpose. The more commonly cited explanations include:^[2]

• It is a historical remnant from the era when wine bottles werefree blown using ablowpipe andpontil. This technique leaves apunt mark on the base of the bottle; by indenting the point where thepontil 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.^{[citation needed]}
• 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; this may be a more historical than functional attribute since most modern wines contain little or no sediment.^[23]
• It increases the strength of the bottle, allowing it to hold the high pressure of sparkling wine/champagne.^[24]
• It provides a grip forriddling a bottle of sparkling wine manually in the traditional champagne production process.
• It consumes some volume of the bottle, allowing the bottle to appear larger for the same amount of wine, which may impress the purchaser.^[25]
• In folklore, 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.
• It prevents the bottle from resonating as easily, decreasing the likelihood of shattering during transportation.^{[citation needed]}
• It allows bottles to be more easily stacked end to end.^[25]
• Bottles could be stacked in cargo holds on ships without rolling around and breaking.^{[citation needed]}
• It makes the bottle easier to clean prior to filling with wine. When a stream of water is injected into the bottle and impacts the punt, it is distributed throughout the bottom of the bottle and removes residues.^{[citation needed]}

Glass retains its color onrecycling, and theUnited Kingdom has a large surplus of green glass because it imports a large quantity of wine butproduces very little. Annually 1.4 milliontons are sent tolandfill.^[26]

Glass is a relatively heavy packing material and wine bottles use quite thick glass, so thetare weight of a full wine bottle is a relatively high proportion of itsgross weight. The average weight of an empty 750 mL wine bottle is 500 g (and can range from 300 to 900 g), which makes the glass 40% of the total weight of the full bottle.^[27] This has led to suggestions that wine should be exportedin bulk from producer regions and bottled close to the market. This would reduce the cost of transportation and itscarbon footprint, and provide a local market for recycled green glass.^[28][29]

Less radically,boxed wine is sold in large, light-weight, foil-lined cardboard containers, though its use has been restricted to cheaper products in the past and as such retains a stigma. Following declining sales of wine boxes in the UK, in 2009 theOffice for National Statistics removed them from itsConsumer Price Index measure ofinflation.^[30] Some wine producers are exploring more alternative packagings such asplastic bottles andtetra packs.^[31]

• Beer bottle – Bottle designed as a container for beer
• Glass bottle – Narrow-necked container
• Kenelm Digby – English courtier, diplomat, astrologer and scientist, considered the father of the modern wine bottle

• Jean-Robert Pitte,La bouteille de vin: Histoire d'une révolution, 2013,ISBN 9791021001138

Wikimedia Commons has media related toWine bottles.

• Liquor/Spirits Bottles at the Society for Historical Archaeology

• Alcohol measurement
• Glass bottles
• Wine packaging and storage

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