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in wine today
All
those pretty French shapes...
By Georges
Meekers
Touching
them in the dark, from the neck working your way down, the basic
bottle shapes for French wine are easy to remember.
Most
still hold 75 cl, or about one lung full of air, which used to
matter when all bottles were individually blown. The differences
are in length of neck, size and slope of shoulder and contours
of bottom of course.
Funny
enough, some have a dimpled bottom and some don’t. The champagne
bottle has usually such an indentation, or punt. Sommeliers sure
of their grip pour bubbly by inserting the thumb in that dimple
while clasping the bottom firmly.
The
burgundy bottle is similar but without that distinctive neckline.
It’s a rounder and fuller cousin. The standard one is made
from pale greenish-yellow (feuille morte or dead leaf) coloured
glass.
The
fine burgundies come from a stretch of vineyards called the ‘Côte
d’Or’, often translated as Golden Slope because of the
high prices these wines fetch. It’s actually an abbreviation
of 'Côte d’Orient' or eastern slope.
The
macho claret bottle on the other hand is clearly made for laying
down, high and broad-shouldered to catch the sediment as you pour.
Red Bordeaux, Sauternes and Graves wines travel in this squared-off
vessel.
Slim
green, elongated flutes with aromatic and full-flavoured contents
are likely to contain a wonderful Alsace wine. Its shorter variant
is probably the German Hock bottle: brown (sometimes blue) for
Rhine and green for Mosel.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape is a heavy and beefy red and hides traditionally
in a signature-embossed, heavy and wide bottle. The Château
Neuf used to be the summer home of the Popes of Avignon in the
14th century, and coincidentally you never saw a thirsty Pope
in those days.
Rosé
de Provence is the Mae West of wine bottles; feminine and best
handled by the slim waist between voluptuous swellings above and
below.
No
wonder it's a favourite lunchtime wine on Riviera beaches, liked
by holiday makers who are used to extortionate prices for cups
of coffee that they don’t notice paying more for a pink wine
than for a serious red.
And
finally, as gallant winewaiters say: ‘Better seize a woman
by the waist, but a bottle by the neck – possibly both at
the same time!’
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