It's a nice theory, but his study can be chalked up to mere coincidence. Historically, the punt (or "dimple" as he calls it) is intentionally designed into the bottle for one of two specific purposes.
1. For those few red wines that are bottled and then aged, the punt creates a valley, for lack of a better term, around the sides of the bottle, so when the wine throws sediment, it is collected there and it becomes leee apt to swirl up when decanted.
2. Not to forget the world of white wines, the punt serves as a place to grasp the bottle by, so the hand doesn't warm the chilled bottle.
When you look at old world regions of wine, the bottle from each unique region evolved to suit that wines particular to that area. An example of this using the punt is the fact that bottles from Champagne have the deepest punts. This correlates to the fact that champagne is usually served colder then most othewr whites, giving more reason to utilize the punt. And, yes, the punt for champagne bottles also eases the job of the riddlers in the caves.
Another illustration of bottles evolving for functionality is the marked difference in shapes between Bordeaux and Burgundy bottles. Bordeaux growing 5 red grapes (Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, Merlot Petit Verdot, Malbec) precipitates larger chunkier sediment. Burgundy, being 100% Pinot Noir, throws less sediment, and the sediment it does throw tends to be much finer thern that of Bordeaux. When you look at the bottle shapes, the bottles form Bordeaux have a severely curved shoulder, which serves as somewhat of a collection area to catch the chunky sediment. Burgundy bottles have a gently sloping shoulder because there is no need for a collection area for the sediment. You can see this carry over to new world whines as the cabs and merlots form Cali tend to come in Bordeaux shaped bottles, and the Pinots in Burgundy bottles.
Alas, for the 95% of wine produced in the world that is bottled and not intended for ageing, this selewction of bottling is merely for marketing. Or maybe in an idealistic world, the producers of today are paying homage to their predecessors...
