Pick up a bottle of wine. Look at the bottom. Do you see the dent in the bottom? What is that dent in the bottom of wine bottles? Why is it there?
Maybe you thought wine makers were trying to put less wine in the bottle and they added the dent in the bottom of wine bottles. Or, maybe you wondered if better, more expensive wines were the only ones with that indentation. Maybe you have had unfiltered wine and thought it was for capturing the sediment and trap it there.
Do you know what that dent in your wine bottle is called? Does it even have a name or a real purpose?
A dent in the bottom of wine bottles is called a punt. It has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the wine in the bottle.
While it is true that punts can collect sediment in a bottle of wine, that is not the purpose. Yes, sediment forms at the bottom of bottles, especially if they sit upright for any length of time. However, that sediment is not going to stay there when the wine is poured. If you really want to capture the sediment, you need to decant the bottle of wine and use a filter.
But, capturing sediment is not the real reason a punt, or dents in wine bottles, exists.
The punt actually started a long time ago.
Wine bottles, like all glass bottles, were hand blown. The bottoms of hand-blown glassware typically become slightly rounded as they cool. A dent in the bottom of wine bottles did not naturally form.
Those glass blowers needed a way to make sure their wine bottles stood flat on a table. Winemakers definitely wanted their bottles to sit and not fall off the table, especially when their hard work to make good wine was in that bottle. There was a genuine purpose for the dent in the bottom of the wine bottles.
The glassblowers pushed up ever so slightly on the warm glass to create that indentation. The punt. Their bottles didn’t wobble or fall as long as the punt was there to keep the bottoms flat. The result was a dent in the bottom of those wine bottles.
Today, most all wine bottles are made by machines. They are also far sturdier than the hand-blown glass ones. They still have the punts, however. You still have a dent in your wine bottle.
Some people, including both waiters and wine drinkers, like the punt. They say the bottle is easier to hold with one hand. You can place your thumb in the punt and hold on to the bottle.
Why do you think the dent is in the bottom of the wine bottles? Or…do you care?
I’ll have another glass, please.
Cheers
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