The wine bottle has had a long and interesting history. The origins of the glass bottle can be traced back to about 1500 B.C. Various objects such as small bottles (balsam containers), small vases and goblets were made using a technique called “on friable nucleus”, a laborious process that consisted of winding molten glass filaments around a bag filled with sand or wet clay. Balsam containers were mostly produced to hold ointments and cosmetics. These glass working systems continued until the 1st century B.C., when a glassmaker came up with the idea of using a glass tube, inserting the end in a crucible, taking a certain amount of molten glass and blowing in the pipe. The glass bubble that formed in this way marked the birth of blown glass, which today is still made in the same way. This is how bottles, carafes, flasks and vases, of any shape or size and for any use, came about.
Back in the days of Mesopotamia and Egyptian winemaking, the winemakers saved their wares in amphorae – clay flasks. These were stamped with the vineyard’s name, the vintage of the wine, type of wine, and so on. This went on for thousands of years, through the Grecian days of wine trade, until the Romans grew to power. With the use of the blowing technique, reduced production times and manufacturing ease, glass soon gained an important position compared to metal and clay objects that had been used till then. Syria , which in the second century became the world’s glass producing centre, exported its products everywhere. Rome , which at that time was imperial, immediately took advantage of applying the techniques, not only in Italy but also in all the provinces of the empire. Glass was quickly found to be a good medium for storing wine. Glass bottles used for pouring and preserving wine were found in Pompeii , which was destroyed in 79 A.D.
With the end of the splendour of Roman glass in the middle ages, glass artwork developed in the Byzantium , especially in Constantinople . Even the production of hollow glass is original, without however modifying the technique.
In 1204, the Crusaders conquered Constantinople and immediately the Venetian government took advantage of this by bringing the most skilful master glassmakers to the city, thereby guaranteeing Venice the works and art of those master glassmakers.
Bottles were originally onion-shaped because this design was easy to blow. It was not until the 17th century that glass-making technology advanced to the point where more or less uniformly-sized neck bottles could be consistently produced, thereby permitting the marriage of the bottle-to-cork stopper. The development of these two elements – a uniform bottle neck size and cork stopper – are credited as the two necessary prerequisites of the modern international wine trade.
The real “wine bottle” was produced by Sir Kenelm Digby in 1652, but it seems that John Colnett was the one who patented it in 1661 and took all the credit for it. This bottle was made of dark, strong, heavy glass with a ball-shaped body that had a slight punt at the bottom to give the bottle stability. A ring was applied around the neck, a few centimetres from the bottle’s mouth in order to strengthen the neck and to hold the string that held and blocked the cork. During the next 30-40 years, the body became elongated and the neck became shorter to improve its stability. Bottles with elongated bodies and smaller necks were found to be more suitable for transportation and long-term storage. During this period, bottles were used for serving wine.
This “English bottle” did a lot to solve the problem of storage, preservation and transportation of wine and soon became popular throughout Europe . At that time, bottles were hand-processed and capacity could not be controlled. They were very often customized with a glass stamp showing the proprietor’s monogram or trademark, or the wine’s vintage. These wine bottles, blown in wooden moulds, permitted them to be sold with their contents for the first time. These bottles first spread from England to France , and then, at the end of the 18th century, to Germany and Italy . Wine bottles varied greatly in size so that consumers never knew exactly how much wine they were getting. Therefore consumers brought in their own containers for a measured amount of wine to be poured into; it was illegal to sell wine in bottles.
In the 1800’s, people found ways of producing standard-sized bottles to between 700ml and 800ml – a size that was easy to make and also easy to carry, although other special sizes still existed. In 1821, an English company patented a machine to mould bottles that were uniform in size and shape. Selling wine already bottled, however, was illegal in England until 1860, due to both the political influence of pub owners and the lack of both labelling standards and means of authenticating the fill volume.
It was in the middle of the 19th century that glass was produced using semi-automatic or almost industrial processes, and from the beginning of the 20th century, automatic machines were used. There was almost a sudden leap from the hand-made product to mechanical production, and glass-making techniques improved rapidly with mechanization.
In 1979, as part of the push to become metric, the US required that all bottles be exactly 750ml. At about the same time, the European Union also asked their winemakers to settle on a standard size. Consequently, most wines bottles are 750ml, but there are still many other sizes. For instance, the Split contains 187ml, the half bottle contains 375ml, the Magnum contains 1.5 litres, the Double Magnum contains 3 litres, the Salmanazar contains 9 litres, the Balthazar contains 12 litres and the Nebuchadnezzar contains 15 litres. In the Champagne district, they have the Jeroboam containing 3 litres, the Rehoboam containing 4.5 litres and the Methuselah containing 6 litres.
Shapes for wine bottles evolved primarily from area tradition. There are “classic” shapes in general use by the majority of producers from any given area and “modern” shapes that are essentially more “artsy” variations of the classics. The Italians seem to have the most variations, such as the tall bottles of fanciful shapes that sometimes hold Chianti.
Through the centuries, every respectable wine region developed its own traditional wine bottle through which you can easily tell which region the wine is from or what particular wine you can expect to find in these bottles. The shape of the bottle does not affect the taste of the finished product. The sole exception is sparkling wine, where thicker-walled bottles should be used to handle the excess pressure.
Today, most of the great viticulture regions of the world have their own distinctive bottle shape. The typical Bordeaux bottle is easy to recognize by the austere straight shape with the “real” shoulders. This high-shouldered bottle may have derived its shape from the fact that older red Bordeaux varietals often have sediment settled at the bottom. When the wine is either decanted or poured into glasses, the shoulder of the bottle helps to trap sediment particles and prevent them from escaping with the good wine. This bottle is known from the beginning of the 17th century and is certainly the most common, with a tall, symmetrical body and short neck. All red Bordeaux wines are to be found in green glass, while most white Bordeaux varietals are to be found in clear glass (with a few exceptions in green), but all have the distinctive high shoulders.
The classic Burgundy bottle has a wide body compared to the Bordeaux , and the shoulder has an elegant slope to it. This bottle radiates something kind-hearted and friendly, which you also can taste in these wines. The white Burgundy is bottled in clear or pale green glass and the reds mostly in green bottles. These bottles are also used for the Beaujolais wines and Rhone varieties. The neck starts just above half way up the bottle and forms a near triangle up to the top. The red grape of Burgundy is Pinot Noir and the white is Chardonnay, and this bottle shape is used by Pinot Noir and Chardonnay producers throughout the world.
The tricky part is that the wines of the Loire Valley are often packaged in the Burgundy bottle, too. In addition, other shapes are very similar, i.e. the Rhone shape, which often represents Syrah or a southern Rhone-style blend of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre and other varieties. If you look closely, you’ll see that the Rhone bottle is not quite as wide and will often bear a coat of arms on the neck.
As already mentioned, the Loire bottle is similar in form and shape to the Burgundy bottle, however it is smaller and has something of the Alsatian “flute” with small, down-hanging shoulders.
The Alsatian bottle is beautiful, long, small and slender. It has something frivolous, a bottle with a lively radiation. Traditionally, if it’s a wine from the Mosel, the bottle is green and if it’s “Hock” wine from the Rhine , the glass is brown. The Alsatian wines of north-eastern France usually go in the Mosel bottle. If the wine is from the new world, this bottle shape usually indicates sweet wine of any type and the colour is the one the marketing department prefers.
In France , the arrival of the bottle coincided with the trials conducted to find bottles suitable for the production of Champagne . Only at the beginning of the 18th century were bottles produced that were robust enough to resist the high pressure of this wine. It was with Champagne that the true, long-term preservation of wine was started. All Champagne and other sparkling wine bottles have a recess or indentation in the bottom of the bottle. If you turn a bottle of Champagne over, you’ll see a concave indentation in the bottom called a “punt”. The earliest origins of the punt are lost in history but there is much conjecture. The more commonly cited explanations for its purpose include:
. It consolidates sediment deposits in a thick ring at the bottom of the bottle, preventing it from being poured into the glass;
. It allows a bottle of sparkling wine to be turned upside-down and then stacked;
. It increases the strength of the bottle, allowing it to hold sparkling wine/champagne;
. It can make the bottle look bigger, impressing purchasers;
. It holds the bottles in place during the filling process in manufacturing plants;
. It accommodates the pourer’s thumb for stability and ease of pouring;
. It is part of the ancient glass-blowing technique. The word “punt” is short for pontil stick, which was a wooden tool that was attached to the base of the hot bottle while it was being blown.
For wine stored under tremendous gas pressure, this was essential because it relieved the pressure on the bottom of the bottle. Without the punt (or kick, as it is also called), the bottle might well have blown out at the bottom. The Champagne bottle has a shape similar to the Burgundy bottle but is made out of thicker glass to withstand the high (5-bar) pressure of the gas in the wine. In the early days of making sparkling wine in the Champagne region, it was a perilous business going into the cellar, because bottles exploded on a frighteningly regular basis. Winemakers and cellar workers routinely wore face masks and eye protection to avoid injury or disfigurement. Eventually, the thick, heavy bottle with the very deep punt we know now was developed.
Today, a punt is unnecessary and exists only because many consumers equate the presence of a punt as an indication of quality. Modern glass technology allows bottles to be made that do not require a punt for strength or stability, either for sparkling or still wines.
Arguably, the shape of a bottle will make little difference to the overall taste of a wine, although a sparkling wine, for example, may pour differently from a bottle than that associated with Champagne . Secondary bottle fermentation also dictates the attributes of the sparkling wine bottle and cork, which is similar throughout the world. However, colour is actually very important in a wine bottle. In fact, it’s more important than the shape. Colour in the glass can help protect the wine from damage from ultraviolet light. Wines are affected by light, therefore green or brown bottles are used and when long maturation is necessary, a dark green or brown bottle is used (NB: always store wine in a cool, dark place).
With cellaring in protected areas, though, colour takes on less significance. There are fairly wide variations in glass colours, from crystal clear through various shades of green and brown to nearly opaque, occasionally some blue as well. The traditional colours used for wine bottles are for Bordeaux wines dark green for reds, light green for dry whites and clear for sweet whites. In Burgundy and the Rhone, they opt for dark green whilst in Alsace , the dark to medium green predominates, although some producers have traditionally used brown. In the Rhine regions, the brown colour is common, 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.
Bottles and wine are integral to each other today, but that’s a recent development. Relatively heavy and fragile, glass has the distinct advantages for wine packaging of being both chemically inert, preventing contamination, and impervious to oxygen, preventing spoilage. There are advantages to storing wine in glass bottles, such as durability, presentation and even tradition. Glass bottles also have the great advantage of preserving a certain temperature for a longer period of time. Glass does not dilate when it is too warm or shrink when exposed to lower temperatures. It is, thus, ideally suited as a long-term storage container. And clear glass admirably displays its contents with brilliant clarity. The introduction of glass as a storage medium changed wine as we know it: while the notion of ageing wine is not a new one, bottles sealed with corks made it possible for the current fine wine scene to develop. For all its beauty, fragility and artistic history, glass has always enjoyed an eminently practical status.
All wines age faster in small bottles than in large ones. Larger bottles are more impressive, festive and convenient for serving more people. Glass is 100% recyclable. Finally, the key advantage of packaging wine in glass bottles is taste. Only a glass bottle can ensure the flavour, colour and aroma of wine. Today, without question, glass remains the overwhelming choice of wine consumers.
Wine News and Information
Italian police at the Port of Livorno have confiscated 30,000 bottles of red wine labelled as “Amarone”. The wine was on the point of being shipped to the US . According to the Minister of Agriculture's website, the confiscation is the result of an on-going investigation headed by a Treviso prosecutor into fraudulent practices within the local wine industry. Officials say that the wine involved is not actually Amarone, the Veneto ’s most renowned wine. They will not reveal what is actually inside the confiscated bottles. Once authorities release all the details including the identity of the company involved, the Consorzio will take legal action.
Wine sales in the UK show no sign of slowing, despite a turbulent week in the financial markets as London auction house Christie’s reported record results. The results demonstrate confidence in wine investment despite the volatile financial climate, and reflect the growing importance of wine as a serious investment opportunity.
The Indian domestic wine market is to double in size in the next two years, according to research. Current consumption of 5m litres is expected to grow 25% in the next two years, to reach 9m by 2010. The figures come from the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham). Reduced duties and eased restrictions on the distribution of wine to deter consumption of stronger alcoholic drinks, has helped the industry’s significant growth. Assocham also cites a rise in disposable incomes, and western influence on lifestyle among younger drinkers, as contributing factors. Wine consumption still lies some way behind other alcoholic beverages. 300m cases of beer and 90m of whisky and other spirits were sold in 2007-08. France accounts for almost 50% of India’s wine imports and Italy 30%.
The Wall Street Journal has gone into the wine trade – a highly unusual step in American newspaper publishing. The New York-based newspaper has established WSJwine, a department that offers to deliver to readers and the general public in 33 American states “quality wines of outstanding value,” domestic and foreign. The inventory consists of everyday and fine wines as well as rarities, some that come from small-production vintners and are “not readily available in stores,” WSJwine said. Under its new owner, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the Wall Street Journal is undergoing a transformation from a business to a general news publication. Its wine critics, Dorothy J Gaiter and her husband John Brecher, write a column that has proved popular with readers for years. The Journal's announcement comes days after reports that amazon.com will start selling wine online to consumers in 26 states.
A fledgling cork recycling programme that aims to divert millions of used wine corks from landfills is gathering such momentum that its organisers aren’t sure they can keep up with what has become a flood of the buoyant little bungs. ReCork America, a campaign sponsored by the massive Portuguese cork manufacturer Amorim, has amassed more than one million used corks at a warehouse in Napa – so many that it’s not sure what to do with them all. The 18-month-old programme has signed up more than 40 wineries in California and Oregon, and about 100 restaurants, wine retailers and other groups, mostly in Napa, where Amorim is based, Marin and San Francisco, and is headed by Larkspur publicist Roger Archey.
Cork manufacturers produce about 13 billion stoppers each year, but to date, there has been no coordinated effort in the United States to keep the corks out of landfills. Without a recycling network, most people and businesses just throw them in the garbage. “That’s a shame, because as a natural material, corks have no business in a landfill,” Archey said. The vast majority of the world’s wine corks are made from the bark of the cork oak tree in Portugal. The bark is “peeled off like a banana” every few years and turned into a range of products beyond wine corks, from shoes to ping-pong paddles, Archey explained. Despite being a natural material, cork takes years to break down in a typical landfill because it is durable and water resistant, he said. So the goal of ReCork America is to build a nationwide grass-roots coalition of wineries, restaurants, individuals and others who will work together to efficiently recycle wine corks.
The largest challenge is an economic one – financially speaking, old wine corks simply aren’t valuable enough to make recycling worth it. Beyond logistics, another major challenge is quality control. While cork is recyclable, other types of “alternative closures” such as plastic corks and screw caps are not. For the programme to be effective, people will need to diligently separate out the natural corks from the man-made ones, Archey said. That could prove tricky, as a recent Family Winemakers of America wine-tasting event in San Francisco proved. Another challenge is finding a cost-effective way to reuse the corks. Archey said he's talking to one company that’s experimenting with turning them into packing material and another that may make them into flooring. “We’re looking for some creative ideas,” he said. Whatever outlet they find for the corks, Amorim is unlikely to profit from the venture. But there are other benefits. The main one is marketing and education. Every time someone thinks about cork as a sustainable natural material, Archey knows they might think twice about reaching for an un-recyclable screw-cap or plastic cork, which he enjoys referring to as a “hunk of petroleum in your wine bottle”. “Doing the right thing will return profits and business in ways that you don’t even think about,” he said.
Monolithos Monthly News
The year 2008 harvesting is over and for Monolithos Winery, this year is marked with the experimentation and production of two new wines made primarily from Merlot and Shiraz grapes.
Merlot is widely considered as softer and medium in weight with fewer types of tannin than Cabernet, and is ready to drink sooner. It also takes well to oak ageing. It is characteristically deep in colour with black cherry aromas and herbal flavours are typical. Merlot is the third most popular red wine grape variety in Australia and one of the most popular in USA.
The Shiraz grape variety gives hearty, spicy reds. It can produce some of the world’s finest, deepest, and darkest reds with intense flavours and excellent longevity. Shiraz is the dominant red wine grape variety in Australia. The wine is characterised by an incredibly concentrated blend of blackberry fruit, spice and chocolate, all within a firm structure that keeps it together beautifully.
Both Merlot and Shiraz perform very well in hot regions such as the southern slopes of Troodos mountains and particularly the hills of Pachna where they are considered as “emerging” varieties. The end result of the experimentation will be an ever-widening choice for discerning Monolithos wine-lovers. The new wines will be available before summer 2009.
If at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or purchase any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to phone him at 25-816212 or 99-165995.
Regards from all of us here at Monolithos and always remember Oliver Goldsmith’s words (1919):
“I love everything that’s old — old friends, old times, old manners, old books and old wine.”
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