Italian wine bottle designs

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Luca Lazzari

Sous Chef
Joined
Jul 27, 2011
Messages
858
Location
Nonantola, Modena
I’m not a wine connoisseur, I just love wine, and I like tasting a god bottle once in a while: next in line, Valle dei Laghi Merlot, Castelfederer Müller Thurgau, Mons Feretris Bianchello del Metauro :yum:
I made some research for my own education and I decided to share them in this post, to illustrate the different bottles used for Italian wines. Bottles vary in color and thickness, and obviously in shape, but generally not in capacity, since wine in Italy is generally sold in 75 cl glass bottles, corresponding to 6 calici (a type of glass).
And since I like fiddling with Photoshop, I created an image, which shows you the different bottles listed in the following paragraphs (with one exception).

40791-albums374-picture4975.jpg


Wine bottle designs
Albeisa – This is an ancient bottle, made with thick and dark glass, which was redesigned in 1973 by Piedmontese winemakers for their more important red wines.
Alsaziana, Renana – Slender bottles, generally used for white or rosé wines. They can be colorless or green.
Anfora – Characteristic bottle, in green glass, designed in 1953 by the Italian architect Antonio Maiocchi for Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi wine.
Bordolese – Named after Bordeaux region in France, it can be colorless for white wines, green for red wines, brown for aged red wines. Bordolese piccola is a smaller bottle, while Bordolese a spalla alta is more stylish and used for some red wines.
Borgognotta, Borgognona – Cylindrical bottle, named after Burgundy French region. It is colorless for white wines, green and brown for red wines.
Champagne cuvèe – This cylindrical bottle, squatter toward the bottom, is mainly used for spumante wines. It is made with dark and thick glass.
Champagnotta, Sciampagnotta – Cylindrical bottle used for spumante wines. The glass is thicker then a standard wine bottle, due to the higher pressure applied by the sparkling content. The color is typically dark green. Champagnotta bottles may have different capacities, each one of them with a specific name (like piccolo, 0.1875 l, or melchisedec, 30 l).
Chiantigiana – Bottle with a 1.5 l capacity, mainly used for the wines from Chianti area (I couldn’t find any image for this bottle).
Fiasco – Ancient rounded bottle with the bottom half covered by a straw basket. Traditionally used for Tuscany wines, once was very diffused but today is rare due to high costs of production.
Marsalese, Marsala – Mainly used for fortified wines like Marsala, it is made with dark brown or black glass.
Porto – Squat cylindrical bottle, usually green or brown, mainly used for fortified wines like Port, Madeira or Sherry. I must admit these are not Italian wines; I need to find out if this bottle is also used for Italian wines, maybe on some future posts.
Pulcianella – Short, pot-bellied bottle original from the Tuscanian town of Montepulciano, mainly used for fine and rare wines.
Torino – Designed in 2008 for the finest Piedmontese wines from the town and province of Torino, it is an asymmetric bottle, green for white wines and brown for red wines.

If you spot any mistake, please tell me! I'm here to learn, friends.

That’s all, alla salute!
 
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I’m not a wine connoisseur, I just love wine, and I like tasting a god bottle once in a while: next in line, Valle dei Laghi Merlot, Castelfederer Müller Thurgau, Mons Feretris Bianchello del Metauro :yum:
I made some research for my own education and I decided to share them in this post, to illustrate the different bottles used for Italian wines. Bottles vary in color and thickness, and obviously in shape, but generally not in capacity, since wine in Italy is generally sold in 75 cl glass bottles, corresponding to 6 calici (a type of glass).
And since I like fiddling with Photoshop, I created an image, which shows you the different bottles listed in the following paragraphs (with one exception).

40791-albums374-picture4975.jpg


Wine bottle designs
Albeisa – This is an ancient bottle, made with thick and dark glass, which was redesigned in 1973 by Piedmontese winemakers for their more important red wines.
Alsaziana, Renana – Slender bottles, generally used for white or rosé wines. They can be colorless or green.
Anfora – Characteristic bottle, in green glass, designed in 1953 by the Italian architect Antonio Maiocchi for Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi wine.
Bordolese – Named after Bordeaux region in France, it can be colorless for white wines, green for red wines, brown for aged red wines. Bordolese piccola is a smaller bottle, while Bordolese a spalla alta is more stylish and used for some red wines.
Borgognotta, Borgognona – Cylindrical bottle, named after Burgundy French region. It is colorless for white wines, green and brown for red wines.
Champagne cuvèe – This cylindrical bottle, squatter toward the bottom, is mainly used for spumante wines. It is made with dark and thick glass.
Champagnotta, Sciampagnotta – Cylindrical bottle used for spumante wines. The glass is thicker then a standard wine bottle, due to the higher pressure applied by the sparkling content. The color is typically dark green. Champagnotta bottles may have different capacities, each one of them with a specific name (like piccolo, 0.1875 l, or melchisedec, 30 l).
Chiantigiana – Bottle with a 1.5 l capacity, mainly used for the wines from Chianti area (I couldn’t find any image for this bottle).
Fiasco – Ancient rounded bottle with the bottom half covered by a straw basket. Traditionally used for Tuscany wines, once was very diffused but today is rare due to high costs of production.
Marsalese, Marsala – Mainly used for fortified wines like Marsala, it is made with dark brown or black glass.
Porto – Squat cylindrical bottle, usually green or brown, mainly used for fortified wines like Port, Madeira or Sherry. I must admit these are not Italian wines; I need to find out if this bottle is also used for Italian wines, maybe on some future posts.
Pulcianella – Short, pot-bellied bottle original from the Tuscanian town of Montepulciano, mainly used for fine and rare wines.
Torino – Designed in 2008 for the finest Piedmontese wines from the town and province of Torino, it is an asymmetric bottle, green for white wines and brown for red wines.

If you spot any mistake, please tell me! I'm here to learn, friends.

That’s all, alla salute!
interesting luca,the champagne cuvee is the same shape that aspalls cyder uses,the pulcianella is the same shape that mateus rosé comes in & in english fiasco means disaster!!
didn't realise there were so many shapes.guess that's the trouble with supermarkets,everything apart from the bubbly & mateus comes in the same shape bottle.cheers matey,interesting stuff:)
 
Luca: Fab Post

Thank you for your valuable informative post on Italian Bottling.

The 1st glass bottles ( vessels ) date back to the 2nd century Roman viticulture. The Romans guarded the precious essences in glass recipients.

The Spanish wine bottles are fairly similar, each region having their own take on bottling and of course the Catalonia Province of Barcelona, The Cava Bottle looks alot like the Champagne bottle from France.

Have a fabulous summer.
Kind regards,
Margaux Cintrano
 
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interesting luca,the champagne cuvee is the same shape that aspalls cyder uses,the pulcianella is the same shape that mateus rosé comes in & in english fiasco means disaster!!

Same here for fiasco! And I was thinking that there is no bottle similar to that used for the Portuguese Lancer's wine, which was very very popular in Italy when I was younger.

didn't realise there were so many shapes.guess that's the trouble with supermarkets,everything apart from the bubbly & mateus comes in the same shape bottle.cheers matey,interesting stuff:)

Me too, the wines I've been drinking all come in the same 2/3 kinds of bottle.

And thank you!
 
Same here for fiasco! And I was thinking that there is no bottle similar to that used for the Portuguese Lancer's wine, which was very very popular in Italy when I was younger.



Me too, the wines I've been drinking all come in the same 2/3 kinds of bottle.

And thank you!
pleasure luca....don't know about over there but,over here,once you had drunk your chianti out of the fiasco,well,a glass,but then again sometimes straight out of the fiasco:LOL:!! & you had drunk your mateus you made a lamp out of the fiasco & stuck a candle in the mateus bottle.italian restaurants & the homes of the customers had one on every table:wacko:!!
 
dunno mate,if it hadn't been for julius caesar & the roman invasion we wouldn't have roads or bathrooms over 'ere:ermm::ohmy::LOL::ROFLMAO:!!

:ROFLMAO:

Same reason why in Rome they cannot build a tube: every time they dig, some ancient Roman remains pop up, and they must stop until some egghead tells them what to do!
 
pleasure luca....don't know about over there but,over here,once you had drunk your chianti out of the fiasco,well,a glass,but then again sometimes straight out of the fiasco:LOL:!! & you had drunk your mateus you made a lamp out of the fiasco & stuck a candle in the mateus bottle.italian restaurants & the homes of the customers had one on every table:wacko:!!

Yes, my uncle created a questionable work of art with a fiasco of Chianti. He melted a series of coloured candles, and a coat of mixed wax covered the whole bottle, I can still remember it... :wacko:
 
:ROFLMAO:

Same reason why in Rome they cannot build a tube: every time they dig, some ancient Roman remains pop up, and they must stop until some egghead tells them what to do!
same in chester where i grew up....ancient roman fortress city as you know luca,you can't stick a bleedin' spade in the ground without digging up a roman or his bits:ermm:!! many roads,houses & hotels etc have all had to be re sited when construction started & another bl**dy roman villa popped up:ROFLMAO:!!
which,on a serious note,is a good thing and long may that continue
 
Yes, my uncle created a questionable work of art with a fiasco of Chianti. He melted a series of coloured candles, and a coat of mixed wax covered the whole bottle, I can still remember it... :wacko:
remember it,i've still got one,i'm cutting edge when it comes to trends & fashion i'll have you know:ROFLMAO:!!
 
same in chester where i grew up....ancient roman fortress city as you know luca,you can't stick a bleedin' spade in the ground without digging up a roman or his bits:ermm:!! many roads,houses & hotels etc have all had to be re sited when construction started & another bl**dy roman villa popped up:ROFLMAO:!!
which,on a serious note,is a good thing and long may that continue

Yes, this is a blessing and a curse, at the same time... like many other things in Man's life :ohmy:
 
Anyone remember these? If I recall correctly, the bottles were labeled "pescevino" ("fish wine" in English) and contained a nondescript, but drinkable verdicchio. :)

I don't know if they still make it or not.

7-SAV138-backinstyle-400x600.jpg
 
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Steve Kroll said:
Anyone remember these? If I recall correctly, the bottles were labeled "pescevino" ("fish wine" in English) and contained a nondescript, but drinkable verdicchio. :)

I was just thinking about that same bottle! Used to collect them, and you are right about the wine, Steve.
 
Anyone remember these? If I recall correctly, the bottles were labeled "pescevino" ("fish wine" in English) and contained a nondescript, but drinkable verdicchio. :)

I don't know if they still make it or not.

7-SAV138-backinstyle-400x600.jpg

Never saw this one, but I just discovered that this Pescevino (rose' from Sangiovese and Montepulciano, white from Verdicchio and Trebbiano, don't know about red), a wine for the Marche region, is really popular in Japan... I don't think the sell it in Italy, if you Google "pescevino marchigiano" you find only English pages.
 
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