The bottle is the glass container used for pouring the wine and given to the consumer. Glass replaced terracotta, wooden casks, metal containers or animal bladders. The consumption of wine has increased tremendously because of the absence of pollution and deterioration. Due to the malleability of glass, being able to offer both visible and capacity guarantees, the shape of the bottle varies and in fact they have become standard to the point to being recognizable as a brand of a particular vineyard. Originally the standard bottle, with the sealed cork were not the same, but varied in capacity from 700 to 720, 750, 760, 780 cl, but a few years ago a general law was introduced which imposed all wine producing countries (except for a few East European countries) a fixed capacity in 750 cl.
The more common bottle shapes are:
- La BORDOLESE (Bordeux bottle): typical of the Bordeux Region, it is mainly used for red winesand its peculiarity is the neck which lies on very accentuated shoulders and acting as a filter in order to stop the remaining deposit to flow into the glass, once common to vintage wines.
- La BORGOGNOTTA (Burgundy bottle): has the peculiarity in having a cylindrical – convex shape and it is used either for white or red wines.
- La CHAMPAGNOTTA (Champagne bottle): originating in the Champagne region has imposed itself as the commercial symbol for Champagne. This bottle is very similar to the Borgognotta bottle with a very thick and heavy glass in order to resist up to 10atmospheres and with a bottle neck having a ring protuberance where metal cages are tightened to avoid corks to explode due to the gas produced by the wine.
- La RENANA: originated in the agricultural Reno's area, in Germany, has a very long cylinder-cone-shape and has always been used for white wines.
There are, as well, less known and popular bottles such as:
- La PULCIANELLA: utilized in the past for Orvieto's wine and nowadays used for Armagnac and by big Portuguese producers for rosè and viňo verde.
- L’ALBEISA: utilized in the Alba's area (Piedmont) for red wines.
- La “CHIANTIGIANA”: having a capacity of 1.500 cl. And due to substitutethe classical Chianti flask.
- Il “FIASCO”: a rounded and blown glass container covered with interlacedstraw in such a way to allow the bottle to stand up autonomously. Used mainly for Chianti and other Tuscan wines, has been for a verylong time the Italian symbol for wine in the world. Nowadays, due to the rising cost of interlaced straw and technical problems given by itsrounded shape in storage, it has almost become obsolete.
Nearly all bottles are utilized for capacity of 750 cl., 375 cl. (known as “mezza”), and 1.500 cl. called “magnum”.
The colour of the bottles varies from white to amber, brown, green withdeeper or clearer shades. Mainly for wines with ageing characteristics are recommended very darkglasses but recent studies have discovered a mixture which enables the light to be filtered ina specific way in order to obtain a better result in conserving the wine.
