Guide to Wine Bottle Shapes

A Short History of Glass Bottles

The history of wine bottle shapes is inextricably linked with technological developments in glassblowing. The oldest wine storage vessels were large clay jars called amphorae. These jars were often lined with beeswax and used for winemaking in situ and occasionally for transport. Today some natural winemakers are reviving the tradition of amphorae-based winemaking and are turning out some exciting wines. 

There is archeological evidence that the ancient Egyptians and people of India made the earliest examples of glass, but it was in the Roman Empire that glassblowing finally flourished. Their winemaking primarily utilized amphorae, but some scholars believe they used glass for wine storage and service. Sadly, this technology was lost with the fall of the Roman Empire. 

It wasn’t until the 1500s that the Venetians rediscovered and improved upon the Roman techniques. The methods for making Cristallo glass were a jealously guarded secret that inspired some of the earliest acts of espionage and totalitarian state controls to maintain Venetian glassmaking supremacy. 

A lumber shortage in Britain in the 17th century led to the adoption of coal to fuel furnaces. This practice unexpectedly produced a much stronger and darker glass that was used for wine storage and wine service. Over the next two hundred years, glass blowing and cork technology evolved together, and bottles went from being rounded to having straight sides, which allowed for “binning,” also known as sideways storage.

By the 19th century, the standard wine bottle shape emerged with a shorter neck, sloped or rounded shoulders, and a punt (the indentation of the bottom of a bottle) for strength and stability. Today we see different bottles for different types of wine.

Modern Bottle Shapes

By the 1970s, most producers had settled on a few standardized and modern bottle shapes with paper wine labels to tell the consumer where the wine came from and who made it. Today the different wine bottle shapes signal the stylistic intentions of a winemaker, which we will dig into a bit more under each bottle type.

Burgundy Bottle

The Burgundy bottle came to prominence in the Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay dominated fields of Burgundy, France. This type of bottle is used to hold wines that age gracefully and without much sediment development, which is one of the reasons the bottle features sloped shoulders instead of the precipitous drop seen in a Bordeaux wine bottle. For a winemaker to use this type of wine bottle means that they are either working with the grapes of Burgundy or are making wine with similar grapes.

Gamay, Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, Mencia, and Listan Negro are red grapes often found in Burgundy bottles. White varietal wines that use this type of bottle include Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, and Pinot Gris. 

Interestingly this shape is often seen in the Rhône Valley but with stamped or otherwise decoratively imprinted embellishments.

Champagne Bottle

A Champagne bottle is shaped similarly to a Burgundy bottle but features a deep punt and thicker glass that can withstand the high pressure created by secondary fermentation. The only other notable difference is that the lip is often wider to strengthen the closure of a muselet (the cage over the cork). The bottle is often medium to dark green and is used by sparkling winemakers all over the world.

Bordeaux Wine Bottle

This bottle originated in Bordeaux, France, and is found in almost every wine region on earth, especially in conjunction with the world’s two most planted grape varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The high shoulders are the distinctive feature and are used to collect the sediment that many highly structured red wine throws as it ages. Many white wines use the Bordeaux bottle as well. It is fashionable, if not ubiquitous. Sauvignon Blanc can come in either Burgundy or Bordeaux bottles, as can Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio. Big red wines like Tempranillo, Malbec, and Shiraz are also commonly found in Bordeaux bottles.

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Germanic Bottle

Alternately referred to as an Alsatian, Hock, Riesling, or Mosel bottle, this tall and slender wine bottle is used for white wines from the mountainous regions of Europe. In Germany, along the vineyards on the Rhine, it is used for Riesling. In Alsace, France, it is used for Gewurztraminer and Riesling. You are much less likely to encounter this shape than Bordeaux or Burgundy, but it is worth noting.

Other Shapes

It should be acknowledged that there are some outliers. Madeira bottles, Vin Jaune bottles from the Jura, and the Fiasco’s of Chianti are all so region-specific that they aren’t included in the standard modern bottle shape, even though they do pop up from time to time.

Bottle Sizes

Surprisingly it wasn’t until the 1970s that bottle size was regulated in Europe. “One bottle = 750 ml” was quickly adopted by winemakers everywhere as the world standard. 

You might be surprised that there are all sizes of specialty bottles in addition to the multiple shapes. They run from the almost-never-encountered-outside-of-an-airplane piccolo to the larger bottles such as the mythical Sovereign bottle that holds 34 standard bottles of wine. Confusingly Bordeaux and Champagne / Burgundy use different names for the same bottle size. We will list them as (Bdx) and (Ch) to avoid confusion. 

Here are the sizes of bottle you might realistically encounter in the world of wine:

Piccolo / Split - A quarter bottle, most often seen in Champagne. 

Demi / Half Bottle 

“50 cl“ - This 500 ml bottle is 2/3rds of a standard bottle and is used for sweet wines like Sauternes and Tokaji.

Standard Bottle Size 

Magnum - This size fits two standard bottles of wine. Every wine from here and up is considered ideal for aging. The less oxygen present in the total volume of wine, the less it can oxidize the wine. 

Marie Jeanne (Bdx)- This size fits three standard bottles of wine and is typically only found in Bordeaux.

Double-Magnum (Bdx) / Jeroboam (Ch) - This size fits four standard bottles of wine. 

Jeroboam (Bdx) / Rehoboam (Ch) - This size fits six standard bottles of wine.

Imperiale (Bdx) / Methuselah (Ch) - This size fits eight standard bottles of wine.

Salmanazar (Ch) - This size fits twelve standard bottles of wine.

Balthazar (Ch) - This size fits sixteen standard bottles of wine.

Nebuchadnezzar (Ch) - This size fits twenty standard bottles of wine.

Closing

While a few outliers that aren’t mentioned in this article exist, it is unlikely that you will run into them. If you do, let us know! We’d love to add to this list or hear about your wine-drinking experience and we hope you enjoyed upping your wine education with this article. Cheers!

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