WINE 101: Wine Bottle Shapes

Wine bottles are interesting and beautiful. They come in many different shapes, sizes and colors. If you’ve had an evening indulging in different wines, you will notice that you have a collection of different shaped bottles.

Why?

Different wine bottle shapes evolved from different wine regions of Germany, France and Italy, where different shaped bottles were developed based on what was appropriate for their style of wine. With more new world wines, the style and shape of the bottle is dependent on which bottle style the winemaker feels will be best for each type of wine.

Here are the different wine bottle shapes that you may commonly see and the wine varieties they originated with.

The Bordeaux Bottle

The Bordeaux bottle is straight with high shoulders. It is commonly used for red wines.

Think Cabernet, Merlot, Malbec, Meritage, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Bordeaux.

The Burgundy Bottle

The Burgundy bottle is tall with sloping shoulders. It is commonly used for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Rhone wines.

Also used for Chablis, Pinot Gris, and Burgundy.

The Port Bottle

The Port bottle is used for fortified wines such as Port, Sherry and Madeira.

It has a bulbous neck to collect residue and is a sturdy bottle to stand up to long aging. 

The Hoch Bottle

The Hoch bottle is tall and slender and associated with German white wines, such as Riesling and Gewürtztraminer.

It is originally the bottle for wines from the Hoch, Alsace and Mosel regions in Germany.

The Champagne Bottle

The Champagne bottle is thick with gentle sloping shoulders and a long neck.

It is generally used for all sparkling wines as its shape and thickness are ideal to hold up to the pressure of the carbonation of the wine.