The glass bottle is the container of excellence for storing wine, and they come in various colours, sizes and shapes.
The Design Lab of the food packaging industries periodically proposes new shapes and colors, in line with market trends. The search for new finishes, new dimensions and new styles in wine bottles focuses on instilling harmony, in the concordance of lines, to the point of becoming a Distinctive Trait.
Whatever the shape, style, weight (environmental regulations require some countries to progressively lighten the bottle for the purposes of reducing CO2), the glass bottle for storing wine is still an obligatory choice today . Because glass manages to maintain the organoleptic characteristics of wine over time, which is what all of us wine lovers want. Buying a good bottle, keeping it perhaps for several years, and then opening it and drinking it on a special occasion with friends and relatives.
The most used bottle in the world is obviously the classic 0.75 liter Bordeaux bottle , considered to all intents and purposes the standard of today, which is also the one that we are all used to seeing on our tables every day. Yet the marriage between the glass bottle and wine is quite recent. The first bottles for storing wine appeared only around 1650.
Glass containers and bottles had already existed for a long time, but the design and quality of the glass greatly limited their use, as they were too fragile for transporting and storing wine. Until then i containers par excellence for wine they had been the wooden barrels, from which the wine was taken shortly before being brought to the tables of consumers with carafes or similar accessories.
Around 1650, however, several European glass masters, especially English ones, began to experiment with new bottle shapes and types of glass, and increasingly better and above all more resistant bottles began to arrive on the market. Cork stoppers also made their appearance around that time. Thus began the long honeymoon of the glass bottle with wine.
For every wine its bottle
The most common shapes for bottles are:
Bordeaux , originally from the Bordeaux area, this bottle has a cylindrical shape, very accentuated shoulders and a short neck, and is among the most used bottles in the world for bottling still wines of any type. It can be colorless (white glass) or green or brown glass (preferred in any case for better preservation of the wine). In fact, dark glass limits the incidence of light.
Borgognotta or Borgognona , still a "French" bottle, this time originating from Burgundy, has a cylindrical shape, slender shoulders and a long neck, it is widely used in the world mainly for white wines. In Burgundy it is used indifferently for both white and red wines.
Rhine or Alsatian , bottle originates from the Rhine and Alsace area used for white or even rosé wines. The slender shape, without shoulders and without indentation on the base, suggests its use for easy-drinking white wines that leave no deposit and should be consumed in a short time.
Champagnotta , another "French" bottle originating from the Champagne area, this bottle is used throughout the world for sparkling wines. The shape is very similar to the Burgundy bottle, but made of thicker and more resistant glass, with a very protruding ring (or rims) to allow better anchoring of the cork cage.
There are also other shapes of bottles, intended above all for niche wine products, such as Marsala, Porto, or the ancient Pulcianella, ( the ''fiasco'' through which the great noble families sent Montepulciano wine to the Court Pontifical)
0.75, the unit of measurement of wine
The quantity of wine inside a bottle, as already mentioned, is 0.75 liters, and we can easily consider it as the unit of measurement for bottles of wine on the market. But why exactly 0.75 LT ? Why not 1 whole LT to make a round figure?
There are various theories as to why this type of ability is used.
There are those who maintain that everything depended on the lung strength of the ancient glassmakers who blew the glass. When around 1700 people began to understand the importance of preserving wine in glass, they also began to produce containers suitable for this purpose, in particular bottles. However, the blowers were unable to blow bottles larger than 65-75 cl so, since they were looking for the largest possible containers, they opted for 75 cl bottles.
According to another theory, however, this particular unit of measurement is used because a bottle of this size contains exactly 6 125 ml glasses used in taverns. In this way the hosts could more easily calculate how many bottles their diners would need. And to arrive at a round figure, the 0.75 liter standard was ideal for satisfying 6 people at the table!
Another theory instead has it that it was the English, their units of measurement and their ancient bureaucratic habits who started the use of the 75 cl format. Due to port taxes and transportation costs, each case of wine sailing to England had to contain a maximum of 2 imperial gallons . Each case could simultaneously accommodate up to 12 bottles. And the calculation was soon done!!. 1 imperial gallon, in fact, is equivalent to 4.5 litres: therefore, dividing the 9 liters available by the 12 bottles, the result led to the solution of 0.75 litres.
As we will see, all other formats are multiples of standard wine bottle . Multiples or fractions to be precise, because they also exist on the market small wine bottles, smaller than the standard bottle.
The formats and names of large bottles of wine
In general, the larger formats contain the great wines, the absolutely best wines, the most prized ones, those that are drunk on special occasions. Wine in large bottles is preserved better (less risk of oxidation!), and this is why they are sought after by great wine collectors from all over the world. How easy it is to imagine the price of these bottles of fine wine it grows as the format increases. Traditionally, it is mainly Champagnes that are bottled in larger formats, while still wines, on the contrary, are mainly bottled in "smaller" formats.
Furthermore, some formats are very heavy and bulky, it takes two to serve, and also quite robust: the Melchizedek weighs 54 kg when full!
Another detail for large formats: it is difficult to find a place large enough to keep them cool. It is a detail not to be overlooked when organizing big occasions in advance.
But one thing is for sure, the names they are classified under are intriguing.
Let's take a little dive into the past in search of the origins of these names, and let's start where the excess begins, that is from Jéroboam . No official version exists to prove its exact origin. The double magnum, 3 liters of content, is the fruit of the work of Pierre Michell, a 17th century industrialist from Bordeaux. Today it is difficult to find bottles with a capacity greater than the Jeroboam. The name comes from that of a king, the founder of the kingdom of Israel and its first king from 933 to 910 BC A name more than suitable for the size of the bottle.
The size increases and the name becomes even more eccentric. With a capacity of 6 L, the Mathusalem symbolizes longevity. His name in fact comes from the oldest character in the Old Testament: Methuselah lived for 969 years. In the Bordeaux area (Bordeaux area) it is also more simply called the Imperiale. The Salmanazar , as for him, accommodates 9 liters of liquid, equivalent to 12 bottles. Salmanazar, king of the Assyrians, is famous for his battles against the Babylonians. The Balthazar , with its 12 litres, is equivalent to 16 classic bottles. It represents a tribute to the famous Wise King, ruler of Babylon, who died when the city was taken by Cyrus II, founder of the Persian Empire. Next we find the 15 liters of Nebuchadnezzar , King of Babylon. Some producers, especially Champagne, have recently designed even larger bottles: Salomon (24 bottles), Souverain (35 bottles), Primat (36 bottles).
The first 30 liter Champagne bottle was also born in 1999. call Melchidezec (high priest), but some glassmakers simply call him Midas (King Midas of Phrygia).
These high-sounding biblical names certainly contributed to building the myth of champagne. The paradoxical association between the idea of festivity that Champagne brings with it and the attribution of names that echo the war is certainly something that catches the eye. Marketing strategy, anecdote or real meaning? The mystery is far from being revealed, but the important thing is to uncork!!!
Cheers!!!