Bottle : nf A bottle is a container à neck narrow, intended to contain and maintain a liquid. THE Mineral water and Juice, wine, cider and beer (can), alcohols, syrups, sodas, oils and vinegars are marketed in bottles of various shapes, sizes and materials.
The bottles of champagne have specific names according to their capacity (see below the capacity of bottles in the European Union).
- Amphorae, barrels, bottles. In Antiquity, wine, preserved and transported in amphorae, ended up being denatured. The invention of the barrel, probably due to the Gauls, was a notable advance. In the Middle Ages, wine was served at the table in vases or pewter jars. It was not until the XNUMXth century that storage in glass bottles became widespread. Until the middle of the XNUMXth century, the bottles were still blown one by one; their shape and size therefore varied from one workshop to another, and sometimes even from one copy to another. With the development of the wine trade, the forms became regionalized, without becoming uniform.
The first "mechanical" bottles were used in Cognac in 1878. From then on, automatic molding established a standard which was soon legalized. The time has come for "special" bottles, and each cru claims to have its own; but the most classic are also the most popular.
- The different names and shapes of the bottles:
Wine bottles: bordelaise (green bordeaux and white bordeaux), Burgundy, green champagne and white champagne, Provence, Côtes-de-Provence, Alsace, Côtes-du-Rhône, Anjou, Clavelin du Jura.
Common names of bottles (in order of size): flask, flask, flask, little girl, topette, can, liter, flask (Italy), magnum, carboy, demijohn.
- The different parts of a bottle: The over-capping cap (usually stamped with the name of the producer), the stopper, the neck, the collar, the neck, the shoulder, the belly (or the belly), the label, bottom, bottom (the shard being the debris of a bottle).
- Bottle capacity in the European Union: European legislation has definitively harmonized the volumes of wine bottles. The following volumes are used are (in centiliters):
- 10 cl.
- 20 cl, for bottles of champagne.
- 37,5 cl, called the half-bottle.
- 50 cl, it is becoming more and more used, especially for sweet wines from Sauternes and SGN from Alsace.
- 66 cl: Clavelin; bottle authorized for Jura yellow wine and Château-Chillon.
- 75 cl: it is the most commonly used bottle, reference and volume in the world.
- 100 cl.
- 150 cl: Magnum.
- 250 cl Marie-Jeanne, no longer used, with notable exceptions.
- 300 cl Double-magnum (4 bottles).
- 500 cl Jéroboam in the Bordeaux region (6 bottles). Until 1978, jeroboams generally contained 450 cl.
- 600 cl Impériale in Bordeaux (8 bottles).
- 600 cl Mathusalem in Champagne (8 bottles), rare.
- 900 cl Salmanazar in Champagne, very rare.
- 1500 cl Nebuchadnezzar in champagne. Only done on rare festive occasions.
- the half-bottle: the capacity of the half-bottle represents half of the content of a normal bottle, ie 37.5 centilitres for the most part. The American half-bottle contains approximately 12.5 US fluid ounces, the English half-bottle 12 UK fluid ounces, or 35 centiliters. The 50 centiliter bottle is now widely used as a replacement for the half-bottle, it would represent the ideal volume for catering.
- The bottle of champagne: From 2010, the bottle of champagne will get thinner, a little bit, reduced by 65 grams. A bottle of champagne weighs 900 grams, it is its standard weight, while bottles of wine oscillate between 450 and 500 grams. Blame it on the pressure exerted on its walls. From now on, the new standard of the chic bottle, decided on Tuesday March 16, 2010 by the Interprofessional Committee for Champagne Wine (CIVC) is 835 grams. With this weight, the glassmakers guarantee the same resistance as on the current one because champagne requires a more resistant bottle than those of other wines because of the release of gas which exerts a pressure of 6 kilograms per square centimeter “. You can't see the difference with the naked eye, but on an environmental scale, this lighter silhouette is part of a plan to reduce carbon emissions in the champagne industry by 25% by 2021. 65 grams less glass is 8000 tonnes of CO02 less per year, the equivalent of the emissions of 4000 cars. Obviously, it is also less fuel in the transport truck, thus saving both financial and energy, and therefore environmental.
When we know that at the beginning of the 1300th century, the bottle of champagne reached XNUMX grams, we are hopeful that, the next century, it will fly away under the effect of bubbles.
- Swiss bottles: Switzerland, which is not part of the European Union, has a market which includes four main types of bottles intended for wine, with capacities of 75, 70, 37,5 and 35 centilitres. They are available in several shades: green, white, brown, dead leaf and antique green. We find the following types:
The Vaudoise bottle; Burgundy, Bordeaux, the long "Rhine wine" flute
In the past, these various forms were traditionally reserved for specific regions. This is no longer the case today, except for the Vaudois bottle, generally still intended for white wines of the canton of Vaud. The access, present or future, of Swiss wines to the international market requires certain harmonizations, in particular in the capacity of the bottles. This is why we find more and more, in Switzerland, 75 cl glasses (European standard) alongside those of 70 cl (Swiss standard). Since 1997, the capacities of 70 and 35 cl are no longer used in Switzerland. The one-liter bottles, the 50 cl jar and the 20 cl bottle are returnable glasses, so they can be reused as they are. Champagne bottles for sparkling wines have 75 cl and 70 cl capacity.
– Citation du poète et romancier britannique Malcolm Lowry (1909-1957) : « Rien au monde n’était plus terrible qu’une bouteille vide ! À moins que ce ne fût un verre vide. » in Below the Volcano.
– Quote from the American writer John Fante (1909-1983): “And to have another sip. He had just started the bottle because it was almost full. » in the novel Ask the Dust (ask the dust) (1939).
Related Articles:
- The wine service : Common practice is to serve wine in its original bottle; according to oenologists, only very old wines that have a deposit and that you do not want to decant can be corked in a basket.
- Bottle, Bottling process et Bottle aging under Wine Dictionary.
- Bottle, Bottle of wine et Empty bottle under Mouth slang.