The bottle of wine

Never could wines have aged sheltered from air and light, and never could the personality of terroirs and vintages have been revealed so brilliantly without the invention of the bottle. The revolution dates back to the 1st century, with the appearance of the blowpipe. Then, in the 17th century, England produced the black glass bottle, crafted in a furnace, to facilitate the splitting of barrel contents for easier transportation. The English also discovered in Portugal the virtues of cork and the hermetic seal. English bottles are shaped like onions, pears, and later cylindrical with squarer shoulders. Bordeaux adopted this model. French bottles have sloping shoulders, both in Champagne and Burgundy. Through their varying shapes across space and time, wine bottles tell a fascinating story. This innovative work demonstrates it with great knowledge and enthusiasm.