Ep 238: All About Wine Bottles

After more hairy details on our crazy and delayed move, and a shout out to UNC Business School, our alma mater for helping when things got tough, we discuss the topic: Glass bottles, which are the most common container for finished wine and their evolution is fascinating! Photo: Pexels History Antiquity – long jars/amphora Romans invented blowing glass –maybe used to serve wine 1636 – first time glass bottles in post-Roman Britain 1690 – 1720 a typical bottle looked like an onion! In the 1730s, binning (storage on wine on its side) became popular and that made cork a better closure – kept cork wet and not dried out. The cylindrical shape was popularized!   Glass making and glass size Bottle glass is made by heating together sand harvested from dunes, sodium carbonate, and limestone. If recycled bottles are used, they’re crushed, which hastens the melting process. Furnaces get to 2,700˚F temps to heat glass enough so you can shape it! Size: Larger bottles = slower aging  Standard: 750 ml, half/split is 375 ml Magnum: 2 bottles (1.5 L) Jerobaum: 4 bottles (3 L) Rehoboam: 6 bottles (4.5L) Methuselah: 8 bottles (6 L) Salmanazar: 12 bottles (9 L) Balthazar: 16 bottles (12 L) Nebuchadnezzar: 20 bottles (15 L) (I forgot to mention Melchior! 24 bottles)     The Marketing behind bottles… Regions adopt a specific bottle size and shape Thicker glass makes a bottle stronger, which is useful for sparkling, and large-format bottles, but for most wines it’s for perception and the extra cost is passed on to you Shapes: Burgundy bottles – sloping shoulders, long neck Bordeaux – big shoulders Flutes – no punt Champagne bottles – thick because they have to protect 6 atmospheres of pressure Punt: is an inverse indentation. This is important for stability in Champagne bottles, but doesn’t matter for other bottles. A deep punt requires more glass to make, again the cost is passed to us! The flute shape has no punt!   We wrap with a discussion of bottle color – from brown, to dark green, to deadleaf to clear, we break it all down!   _____________________________________________________ Thank you to our sponsors this week: YOU! The podcast supporters on Patreon, who are helping us to make the podcast possible and who we give goodies in return for their help!Check it out today: https://www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople      The Great Courses Plus  Who doesn't want to learn!? The Great Courses Plus makes you smarter and more well rounded. With thousands of outstanding video lectures that you can watch or listen to any time and anywhere, The Great Courses Plus is an easy way to stimulate your brain and make you smarter! Learn how to be the best griller in your neighborhood with How to Master Outdoor Cooking For a free trial, support the show and go to my special URL www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/wine      Last Bottle Last Bottle Wines finds great wines and offers them at a one time discount. Last Bottle Wines: Is a fun way to discover the best wines at the lowest prices Maintains relationships with producers in the most prestigious wine regions around the world and traveling to Europe several times each year to eat with, stay with, drink with, walk the vineyards with the people who make the wines. Offer a range of prices from low end to high end $9 to $99 and the wines range from the lesser known kinds like Albariño and Bläufrankish to Cabernet, Merlot and Chardonnay. Visit: http://lastbottlewines.com/normal and join to get a $10 instant credit to use toward your first order. Invite your wine drinking pals and they’ll get $10 instantly and you get $30 when they make their first buy.           Get the back catalog on Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.