Wine Bottle Decoder

Did you know you can an you tell what type of wine you’re drinking just by looking at the bottle? It’s true. Here’s how to recognize wine just by the shape of its bottle:

High Shoulder
High Shoulder is the most common type of wine bottle style. The most common wines that use this style bottle are Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and white wines made with Sauvignon Blanc.

Sloping Shoulder
The sloping shoulder bottle is commonly used for Pinot Noir, Syrah, Chardonnay and Grenache. Additionally, most oak-aged white wines come in this style of bottle.

Sparkling Wine and Champagne
Champagne (or Sparkling Wine) bottles tend to be heavier than other wine bottle because they must withstand the pressure of seven earth atmospheres inside the bottle. Some bottles have divots on the bottom of the bottle, called “punts.”

Various Dessert Styles
Dessert wine bottles tend to have more ornate designs than the bottles of regular dry wines. Producers of dessert wines are known to put custom stamps or seals on their bottles.