Wine Bottles: Analog Standard from a Bygone Era?
In This issue: Topics related to the wine glass bottle. History, trends, and future of the technology.
OLD IDEAS FACE NEW REALITIES
Britain guzzles around one billion bottles of wine each year, using 500,000 tons of glass. Switching to lighter containers would reduce CO2 emissions by 90,000 tons. It would also guarantee that the wine is fresh, untainted by corks or oxygen.
HISTORY
Nowadays we take it for granted that wine comes in a glass bottle. However, transporting heavy bottles for thousands of miles is a reason for concern if we are trying to lower our impact on the planet.
The glass wine bottle is a relatively recent invention, considering that the history of wine itself goes back some six thousand years. Wine was not made with the intention to store for long periods, or to transport long distances. Sometime around the mid-seventeenth century handmade bottles were first used to keep the wine under cork for long periods, also increasing the ease of transport and service.
Although barrels had been in use since early Greek times to transport and store all kinds of things, both liquid and solid, the Romans started using oak for its strength and because it was easier to bend in the typical shape we know today.
Wine was commonly stored in barrel in the cellar, but it was usually transferred to smaller vessels before serving at the table. Handblown glass became a convenient reusable container in which to display and carry wine. However, barrels were still needed to transport wine over long distances.
A man by the name of Henry Ricketts of Bristol received a patent in 1821 for the first standardized glass bottle mold. This became known as the “Bristol bottle”. These molds worked only with glass blown into them. Around 1886 a semi-automatic machine was invented to speed up the process. Even if you didn’t have a cellar, you could purchase wine, carry it, and keep it at home. A great advantage in cities with growing populations.
EXPENSIVE WINES IN HEAVY BOTTLES
Champagnes needed a thicker bottle, because the pressure in the bottles made the handling and transport of the bottles a dangerous job. In the early days, winemakers either didn’t know how much sugar and yeast was needed exactly to induce the second fermentation and sometimes added too much, or bottles were of variable quality. It was customary to keep the bottles wrapped with burlap, to avoid injury in case of rupture.
It is said that the Russian Czar, lover of Champagne, objected so much to the look of burlap that he asked for his bubbly to be bottled especially in stronger crystal bottles. Thus, Cristal Champagne was born.
Recently, some wineries, especially in the New World, have adopted heavy glass bottles for their most expensive cuvees. Since the wines are not sparkling, there is no need for this except to make a strong visual impact. The heavier the bottle, the more expensive the wine, the rule goes. Luckily, some producers are abandoning this practice and are promising to start using lighter bottles in future vintages.
NEW PACKAGING
There is new packaging in the market that are offers an alternative to heavy glass. Almost everyone is familiar with the “bag in a box” concept available for lower-priced wines. The wines are basically in a large plastic or mylar bag that contracts as the wine is poured off a spout. Contact with air is reduced and you can keep pouring for days and weeks.
Another idea is thinner glass which has been treated especially and is harder than regular glass. There are also new bottles made from recyclable aluminum, pet bottles and Tetra Packs. Boisset Family Estates from France already has some products in these alternative packages.
Remember the days when you could bring your own container to the winery to be refilled with wine? Well, something similar is now being tested. The wines are packed in steel kegs where wine is pressurized with argon gas. As the wine is poured, the wine is never in contact with air and remains fresh. Restaurants are using this technology to serve wines by the glass at a fraction of the cost of opening regular bottles. This saves handling and transportation costs, bottle storage and it recycles.
It is possible that we will see retail shops offering pours from kegs in the near future. Is glass on its way out? Maybe not for wines that will be aged. But for everyday drinking, it seems the way to go.
PRESERVING YOUR WINES AT HOME
You open a good bottle of wine but cannot drink all of it alone. Or maybe it doesn’t go so well with the food you’re having. You don’t need to buy one of those air pumps, which only do a half job of preserving your wine. Keep at hand a few empty half bottles of wine with a screw cap and fill it so that there is no air. Use quarter bottles if you have less than 375 ml left. The wine will remain fresh in the refrigerator as if you had just opened it.
