Caterer and Hotelkeeper – 29972
WINE is now sold in plastic bags encased in cardboard boxes with taps at the bottom, in plastic bottles and even in cans. But, for functional as well as aesthetic reasons, the traditional glass bottle remains the best container for wine. Because light affects wine adversely, bottles tend to be brown or green to help preserve their contents.
Different shapes are associated with different wine-growing regions and different styles of wine. The high-shouldered straight-side bottle is associated with Bordeaux, the sloping shouldered bottle with Burgundy, the Rhône and many Italian and Spanish wines.
But there is a tendency for wine-makers in other countries, including those of the New World, to follow the French models in the choice of bottle shape. They choose, for example, the Bordeaux shape for wines made with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and other classic grape varieties associated with the region and the style.
In the same way, the narrow, tapering bottle of northern Germany and Alsace (brown in the Rhine, green in Alsace) has been copied by many producers of white and rosé wine. Less often copied is the disc-shaped "bocksbeutel" of central Germany, though it has been enthusiastically adopted by the Portuguese for some of their rosé and white wines.
According to EC regulations, the standard bottle contains 75cl and a half bottle 37.5cl. Some wines are bottled in larger than standard bottles. Bordeaux is frequently found in magnums where it ages more slowly and, according to many authorities, supremely well.
But it is Champagne that is most commonly associated with outsize bottles. These are: magnum(the equivalent of two standard bottles); jeroboam (four bottles); rehoboam (six bottles); methusaleh (eight bottles); salamanazar (12 bottles); balthazar (16 bottles); and nebuchadnezzar (20 bottles).
In Bordeaux outsize bottles are known as magnum (two bottles), double magnum (four bottles), jeroboam (six bottles) and imperial (eight bottles).
Quarter bottles both of still and sparkling wine including Champagne are now widely used by airlines, using plastic and screw tops. JH
