There are three basic bottle shapes: The tall, skinny German/Alsatian bottle (think Riesling); the high-shouldered, brawny Bordeaux bottle (think Cabernet/Merlot); and the curvaceous, low-shouldered Burgundy bottle (think Pinot Noir).

Why not one standard for all wine? In a word: tradition. For the better part of three centuries, these basic shapes were developed in their corresponding wine regions as the result of economics. The German/Alsatian bottles are lighter in weight and more compact because early trade routes along the Rhine River were, for the most part, gentle voyages, and the compact bottles were easy to stow.

The two more common shapes, Bordeaux and Burgundy, are strong and heavy, and, unlike German/Alsatian bottles, have a reinforcing punt, or indentation, in their bases, to help withstand more volatile trade routes, whether by land or by sea. As to the matter of “shoulders,” Bordeaux producers will tell you the high-shouldered bottle evolved to capture sediment produced by their highly tannic wines, whereas the softer, less tannic Pinot Noirs produced in Burgundy didn’t need the high shoulders at all.

Surprisingly, they all contain the same amount of wine—750 milliliters, or 25 ounces—and have done so since the European Union enforced standardization of all bottles in the 1970s. Why not round it up to one liter for good measure? Again, tradition sets the standard. According to theOxford Companion, the “standard” size was perhaps a lungful of air, harking back to when bottles were manually blown by humans. For better or for worse, the shape cannot tell us anything about the quality of what’s inside.

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