Wine Bottle Weight, Shape, Glass
and Label Design Changes Over Time
(Part 1)
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| Wine Bottle Weight by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
Wine Bottle Weight (Full and Empty)
Have you ever wondered how much a bottle of wine weighs? In kilos (kg) or pounds (lbs)?
Well, one of my colleagues recently asked me this question, which prompted me to write this little post on the subject to transcribe my answer to him for you all, just in case you're interested.
First, let's clarify a huge universal misconception.
Basically, it is common ground to believe that 12 full regular bottles of wine weigh about 9 kg (kilos) or 19.842 lbs (pounds), as their volume per bottle is 750 ml (milliliters) and because 1 ml = 1gr, therefore 750 ml = 750 gr (grams) or 0.75 kg (kilos) or 1.653 lbs (pounds); so
750 gr x 12 bottles = 9 kg or 19.842 lbs (pounds)
1 kg = 2.20462262 pounds (usually rounded at 2.205 pounds)
but check the "Kilos to Pounds" conversion table below for more references.
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| Kilos to Pounds Conversion Table by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
This universal misconception that a case of wine only weighs 9 kg is purely and simply incorrect. Worst, it is completely wrong. 9 kg (kilos) or 19.842 lbs (pounds) would only be the weight of the liquid inside the bottles (the content only), not including the weight of the bottles themselves or the weight of the wood of the case (meaning without the container).
NB: For the purpose of this post, I'm not including the combined weight of the capsule, the cork, and the label(s), which usually only account for a few additional grams to the fully dressed-up bottle. Even if I know that, obviously, the capsule made of tin or wax (which are usually heavier than the ones made of heat-shrink plastic, PVC, or aluminum), as well as the long and full high-quality natural cork (usually heavier than agglomerate and synthetic corks), could evidently be adding a tiny, yet significant amount of weight that should be added to the total weight of the bottle. But I won't consider it for this post if you don't mind.
Therefore, to answer the question that opened this post (and we will only focus on A for this post):
The weight of a bottle of wine = A (wine weight + bottle weight) + B (capsule+cork+labels)
But wait. It would be too easy if it were that simple (and that's where it usually gets more complicated), wouldn't it?
Yes, it would be that simple if all regular wine bottles had the same shape and weight. However, that is not the case, which is why it is so difficult to answer this question. There is not one simple correct answer, but thousands of them.
Wine bottles come in countless shapes and weights due to the heaviness and thickness of the glass used.
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| Some French Wine Bottle Shapes by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
As you can see, a picture is worth a thousand words... There are 9 different shapes already in this collage with 9 different thicknesses and heaviness of the glass used for these particular bottles... (sigh)
So, to refute this common (wrong) belief that a case of 12 bottles weighs about 9 kilos and most regular bottles weigh about the same, let's apply some simple arithmetic to find an answer that will satisfy even the most skeptical ones.
By experience, a case of 12 bottles of Bordeaux wine weighs about 20-21 kilos on average (which is far above the common belief of 9 kilos, wouldn't you say?). Let's take 21 kilos for this example.
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| Approximate Weight of a case of 12 bottles of wines by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
NB: Please note that I took round numbers for the case weight in pounds (i.e., a wooden case of 12 bottles may weigh between 40 and 50 pounds), as it was easier visually and for the calculation.
However, also know that, in fact, some wine boxes/cases may weigh as low as 18.5 kilos (or 40.786 lbs) and up to 23 kilos (or 50.706 lbs) or more (which explains the range I took of 40-50 pounds).
As detailed in the table above, you can see that if a "Heavy Weight" wooden case of 12 regular Bordeaux bottles weighs about 21 kilos, then the weight of a bottle of wine (including the wood weight of the case) is about 1.75 kg or 3.75 lbs (including the wood weigh... essential to repeat it for those who may have not understood it in the table above).
Now that we have clarified this point, we still need to consider the wood weight of the wooden case and add it to the bottle weight (i.e., in the calculation above, 1.75 kg = (bottle weight + wine weight + wood weight)).
So, I could have applied some simple arithmetic formula there again to determine the wood weight and the full bottle weight, but as mentioned above,
bottles of wine come in countless shapes and weights due to the heaviness and thickness of the glass used for the bottle. Therefore, it is very difficult to apply a formula as each bottle has its particular shape and weight.
Consequently, I did a little exercise for this particular post. I weighed some empty bottles I have around the office and in our headquarters' cellar, and I just added to their respective weight the content of the bottle—the volume of the wine, if you prefer (750 ml = 750 gr or 0.750 kg or 1.653 lbs if easier to understand; refer to the conversion table above if needed).
To anticipate and prevent the annoying questions of the skeptics and other non-believers of all sorts, I took some pictures while weighing the bottles to show you how I obtained the various empty bottle weights that I took as references for the numbers indicated in the column "Approximate Weight Empty Bottle" in the table below.
I weighed and compared the following empty bottles:
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Pictures of empty bottles on a mini scale to obtain the weight of each bottle
(Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Loire) by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
The wines in the picture above are:
Bordeaux:
- Clavis Orea Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2015
- Petrus Pomerol 1961
- Château Haut-Brion Graves 1982
Burgundy:
- Domaine de la Vougeraie Gevrey-Chambertin 2014
- DRC (Domaine de la Romanée Conti) Romanée Conti Grand Cru 1966
Loire Valley:
- Domaine A, Cailbourdin Pouilly Fumé "Les Cris" 2015
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Pictures of empty bottles on a mini scale to obtain the weight of each bottle
(Champagne, Napa, Tuscany, Germany) by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
The wines in the picture above are:
Champagne:
- Gosset Grand Blanc de Blancs NV
- Dom Perignon Oenotheque 1969
Bordeaux:
- Château Cheval Blanc Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classé A 1947 (A. de Luze et Fils label, I believe, but TBC)
Napa Valley:
- J.J. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese 1988
I put the weighing results in this "Wine Bottle Weight (empty and full)" table below for a better visual.
NB: Please note that the weights of the bottles in the pictures above (transcribed in the table below) are just a few examples
for reference only and, therefore, may not constitute definite or accurate numbers for other bottles than the ones I weighed, as each wine bottle has its own shape and weight. This means that even 2 bottles of the same producer, same wine, same vintage, same volume, and even, in some cases, the same bottle lot number may present slight variations in shape and weight. (Needless to say, even scales can have slight variations, too, so these weight numbers are for references to these specific bottles only)
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| Wine Bottle Weight (Empty and Full) by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
So, as you probably realized (looking at this table above), the weight of a regular empty bottle of wine for this particular exercise (regular meaning 750ml) can be
- anywhere between the range of 500 grams (or 1.10 lbs) and 950 grams (or 2.094 lbs),
- with the lightest as low as 475 gr (or 1.047 lbs) and the heaviest up to 1012 gr (or 2.231 lbs)
Interesting, isn't it? I find this fascinating, but not everyone can be as passionate by the wine and the bottle details as I am... It is a bad professional habit. In fact, as a Wine Quality Control Director, I spend a lot of time studying and scrutinizing wine bottles on a daily basis.
However, I hope that this little post helps you better understand that there is no simple answer to the questions "What is the weight of a bottle of wine?" or "How much does a bottle of wine weigh?" (as it clearly depends on the empty bottle weight, which can be drastically different from one to the next due to the thickness and heaviness of the glass used for the bottle).
So, now that we have roughly figured out the weight of an empty bottle and added the weight of the wine inside, we have to deduct the wood weight and/or subtract it from the total of the empty bottle weight + volume + wood weight.
Let's take an example based on a case of 12 bottles of Bordeaux wine weighing about 21 kilos (or 46.297 lbs), and we can take the empty bottle weight of Cheval Blanc 1947 in the table above (0.824 kg) as an example. We can separate each component and conclude the following:
A. If a case of 12 bottles of Bordeaux weight = 21 kg
B. Then, 1 bottle of Bordeaux weight (including the case's wood weight) = 1.75 kg
C. Example of an empty regular Bordeaux bottle weight = 0.824 kg
D. Wine volume weight (per 750ml bottle) = 0.750 kg
Therefore, (B - C - D) = E (Wood weight per bottle) = 0.176 kg
And consequently, (C + D) = F (Full Bottle weight without the wood weight) = 1.574 kg
or expressed differently,
- Case weight divided by the total of bottles in the case: 21 / 12 = 1.75 kg
- Total bottle weight, including wood weight minus volume weight: 1.75 - 0.75 = 1 kg
- Empty bottle weight including wood weight minus empty bottle weight: 1 - 0.824 = 0.176 kg
- Wood weight = 0.176 kg per bottle (for this particular example for a 21 kg case of 12 bottles)
- Full bottle weight = 0.824 + 0.75 = 1.574 kg
Here is another table to make it visually easier for you:
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| Full Bottle Weight Calculation Example by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
NB: Remember, as stated above, that the combined weight of the capsule, cork, and labels (front and back) was not considered for this exercise. However, you can definitely add a few more grams to the full bottle's total weight if you want, knowing that a tin capsule weighs about 3-8 gr and a cork between 3-6 gr.
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Tin Capsule and Cork weight examples
- by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
FYI: add a few more grams to the tin capsule examples in the picture above as the top of the capsule is missing (the reason why I wrote about 3-8 gr)
A brief history of bottle shapes
and glass thickness and heaviness
It is interesting to notice that, historically, the bottle's weights and shapes, as well as the thickness and heaviness of the glass used for the bottles, changed over time, up and down, almost like a trend, meaning coming and going, from heavy to light to heavy again to light again, depending on the availability, style, and belief (or trend) of the moment.
For example, some Châteaux in Bordeaux had heavier, broader, and longer bottles back in the 40s and 50s, then lighter and leaner in the 60s and 70s up to the 80s, to go back to heavier style of bottles with thicker glass (more Californian style) in the late 90s and early to mid-2000s, to once again and finally go back to less heavy, more conventional Bordeaux style bottles since the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Even the color of the glass used for the bottles also changed, from darker brown or green to lighter brown or lighter green, to darker again to lighter again... and don't even get started on the color of the glass depending on the region and wine style, for example:
- Bordeaux: dark green for reds, light green for dry whites, colorless/transparent usually for sweet whites and rosés (colorless for rosés pretty much everywhere around the world)
- Burgundy and the Rhone: dark green or even dark brown/amber up to the 60s and 70s.
- Mosel and Alsace: usually dark to medium green, but also traditionally brown/amber and even blue
Colorless/transparent glass is usually used for young wines made for immediate consumption, like most rosés and some dry whites. Due to their fast turnover on the shelves, these wines do not necessarily require protection against rays of light (sunlight, neon, and other artificial lights), so they do not need a darker glass. Colorless/transparent glass is also used for aesthetics and easier visual recognition of the wine color, particularly for rosé, orange, and blue wines.
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Examples of Amphoras from Ancient Egypt, Greece and Roman Era
by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
The bottle's weight and shape changes, as well as the evolution of the glass's thickness, heaviness, and color, can be attributed to history itself.
Let's have a brief look at what happened over the last 5000 years:
- The earliest trace of man-made glass in Eastern Mesopotamia and Egypt dates back to around 3500 BC (or 2500 BC, depending on the source). At that time, black volcanic glass was apparently wrought and used to make weapons, amulets, and decorative objects, probably mostly used in rituals.
- 1550 BC—Ancient Egypt started producing glass for various purposes, but not necessarily as a vessel for wine (or maybe wine glasses and decanter-like style of tools, who knows). They instead used amphorae, sealed with leather or clothes (clay may have also been occasionally used at that time), for the fermentation, storage, and transportation of the wine. The wine was kept in clay/pottery amphoras or jars of various sizes and shapes, and wine was served in clay/pottery mugs.
- 1400 BC—The discovery of faience accelerated the evolution of glass, and by the mid-1400 BC, glass production was firmly established and further developed in Egypt. Yet it remained a costly material, only accessible to the royals, nobles, and rich merchants at the time. Clay/pottery amphoras or jars and mugs were the norms.
- 25 BC - The glass-blowing technique was introduced during the Roman Era. The Romans and the Gallic, having discovered the advantages of using barrels (previously mainly used for beer) instead of the amphoras and pottery jars, mainly used for aging and storage, gradually extended the use of that new vessel for wine. Aside from leather and clothes, clay and wax were also used as sealants, and the cork was apparently also used as a sealant but not necessarily to seal wine containers (like amphoras or barrels). Although the Romans had access to glass for various uses, amphorae pottery jars and mugs were mainly used for the service of wine. Glasses were made out of clay/pottery, faience, or metal.
- By 3 AD, due to the abundance and proliferation of oak trees in Europe, the Romans had adopted the oak barrel as the vessel of choice for wine fermentation, aging, storage, and transportation. Compared to other types of wood experimented at the time, and aside from its fine grain, making it an ideal choice to keep liquid safe inside due to its permeability, they realized that oak bestows additional flavors to the taste as well as making the wine softer and in some cases better. Aside from the other sealants, it is said that cork was also used as a sealant at that time (even since Ancient Egypt, but it was not then the preferred sealant of choice for wine. It became centuries later).
- Before the late 1500s, glass was fragile, expensive, and difficult to manufacture as the bottles and other vessels were hand-blown. Aside from leather, clothes, clay, wax, or even porcelain, glass stoppers were also in use but not favored as a prime choice as each had to be created individually to perfectly seal their corresponding hand-blown bottle/vessel, which was a delicate and painful process. Moreover, if stuck inside the neck of the bottle, the glass stopper could easily break or break the neck of the bottle while being removed.
- 1600s - The invention of the coal furnace allowed for the production of bottles made with stronger, thicker, and heavier glass, more difficult to break and thus safer than the glass vessels and glass stoppers made until then. Although wine was still aged and transported in barrels during that time, glass bottles began to be used as a preferred container for wine, which was eventually transferred to individual glass bottles, which were easier for storage, sale, consumption, and transportation. The sealants cited above were still in use, including glass stoppers, but cork use was rising as it proved easier and more versatile than other types of stoppers.
PS: The 1600s coal furnace was used to craft glass materials and other tools, which had nothing to do with the first riveted steel coal furnace built in 1885 for domestic use as a home heating device.
- By the late 1600s, creating more uniform and homogeneous bottles, in shape and design, was now more possible. Cork became the sealing material of choice, as it proved "somewhat" easier and less dangerous to remove from the bottleneck than glass stoppers, which often remained jammed into the neck of the bottle and easily broke during removal. However, people struggled to remove the cork from the neck of the bottle, and although the mention of it can be traced as early as 1676, corkscrews did not officially exist until 1681. The earliest wine bottles were rounded in shape with a round base and were often held in special stands or baskets to enable them to stand up without falling or rolling on their side. Gradually the bottle's base became flat and thus self-supporting. The bottle's bodies resembled more like an onion or were balloon-shaped, while the neck's length varied from long to short, depending on the use and purpose of the bottle.
- During the 1700s, the bottles became smaller. Their shape(s) became more cylindrical, allowing for the bottles to be laid on their side rather than always standing up, which was better for storage and transport and easier for service, too. Glass bottles were now widely used for all sorts of beverage (still wines, sparkling wines, beers, ciders, spirits, etc...), coming in various sizes and shapes still quite different than today's wine bottles: some bottles boasting shorter, sturdier bodies with rather large bases and shorter necks.; and some being large glass wine jars. Cork was by now established as the bottle sealant of choice. Yet, people still struggled to remove it from the neck of the bottle and had to wait nearly a century of trials later for easy-to-use corkscrews to become available, as the first corkscrew patent was only granted to the Reverend Samuell Henshall, in 1795, in England. (*)
- In the early 19th century, roughly by the 1820s, wine bottle shapes had evolved and resembled the ones we use today. Their production had increased drastically, and although they still presented some defaults and asperities, the consistency of shapes and designs had become much better, more uniform, and homogenous. Yet, creating elegant, stylish, and chiseled bottles for special orders, events, and other purposes took real craftsmanship and artisanal skills.
- The 1920s -30s - Prohibition - Glass bottles were quite heavy, made with thick glass, with broader shoulders than the bottom
- 1939 - 45 - WWII - Still heavy bottle with thick glass made from whatever was available then. As glass was difficult to find during the war, glasses of various colors were often recycled and then melted together. Therefore, it is not uncommon to find bottles of the same château, same wine, and same vintage in bottles with a slightly different color (some greener, some browner, some in between) and even shapes sometimes.
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| How Glass Colors for Wine Bottle are Made by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
NB: Did you know that before World War II, brown glass was used more for bottles of wine (and beer) than green-colored glass? The reason differs depending on the source. However, it is likely due to a lack of sulfur availability for the production of bottles. Why sulfur? A glass bottle's amber or brown color is produced by adding sulfur (carbon and iron salts) to the glass. And why was it lacking during World War II? Because sulfur was a critical industrial and military substance at the time, used back then in agriculture and viticulture, but also heavily used in medicine as an antibacterial in a sulfur-based drug called "sulfanilamide." During World War II, sulfanilamide powder became a standard in first-aid kits for treating open wounds and was, therefore, restricted or limited for other uses. Green glass is the result of an addition of iron oxide to glass. Iron oxide, which only had fewer other uses than as a pigment and was not being used to produce steel, was more available than sulfur. Consequently, although amber and brown glasses are still produced, green glass became the standard after World War II, and green gradually replaced the amber/brown bottles, some not until a few decades later. A good example is Jaboulet, which only changed its bottles from brown to green in the late 70s.
- 1950s - Transition period with predominantly heavy bottles with thick glass, yet lighter bottles start to appear as wine production, and demand increased
- 1960s - The firstborn of the baby boomers era (1946-1964) were about to reach their 20s, nearly doubling the earth's population, from 2 billion before WWII to 3.3 billion people in the mid-1960s. The time was to party, forget the wars, and celebrate peace. Music was evolving, people felt freer than ever, wine was in demand, and thus production was rising, bottles were becoming smaller, with leaner glass.
- 1970s - The era of industrialization and factories, the earth's population rose to 4 billion people, time was to mass production, quantity over quality, bottles were getting smaller, leaner, and even clearer than before. By the end of the 70s, most brown and amber bottles had been replaced by green bottles, which have been adopted and accepted by most regions, except for a minority of only a few producers and within particular regions: e.g., in Germany,
- where brown/dark amber color bottles are usually used for the wines from the Rheingau region,
- compared to the dark green used for the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer,
- as for the switch to blue bottles in the late 70s and early 80s, it was more the result of a marketing stunt from a few producers to distinguish and differentiate their brand/wine from the rest
NB: remember that the color of the glass of the bottle does not give any indications of the quality or price or even the provenance of the wine (except in Germany for the latter, maybe)
- 1980s - The era of the rise of capitalism, we talk about money, we talk about the dollar bill, also nicknamed "the Greed decade" Western Europe was deeply under the influence of the American dream (Movies, TV Series, Music, Clothes, Fast Food, etc...), the earth population rose to 4.8 billion people by the mid-80s, the world is experiencing critical socioeconomic changes due to drastic advances in technologies and techniques, wine production was still on the rise, quality started to overcome quantity, bottles are now smaller, leaner and even clearer than they were 40 years ago, and became the norm for the Classic Bordeaux and Burgundy bottles
- 1990s - The end of the Cold War and the rise of technology with significant communication, multiculturalism, alternative media, the World Wide Web, cable television, cellphone advances, luxury goods, and brands are also rising. Rare artisanal products become cult products accessible to only a few. By the late 1990s, "expensive" meant to be produced in small quantities, be visually different and show a certain weight. Thus, the bottles of the world's most expensive wines distinguish themselves from the rest by becoming heavier and thicker, especially in Napa Valley, where cult wineries with tiny production excel at being the heavyweight champions of the wine world's heavy bottles.
- 2000s - The new millennium, the decade responsible (among too many other things) for the rise of social networks (i.e., MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc...), the "iPhones," and thus the beginning of the "human's addiction to smartphones" era, which unavoidably resulted into an incurable global infection known as "the phone zombies," and other significant cultural highlights as well as disasters (i.e., the housing crisis of 2006, followed by the financial crisis of 2008 and their consequences) and political milestones across the globe (i.e., Barack Obama was the first African American elected at the Presidency and became the 44th President of the United States) and so many other things (but as usual I'm derivating from the initial subject).
Examples of Bottle and Label Design Changes Over Time
Part 1
So, to return to the initial subject of this post, which is the weight, thickness, and heaviness of wine bottles, the 2000s (and 2010s) saw many Châteaux having their labels or bottles especially embossed, engraved, or redesigned to celebrate the millennium or specific dates and anniversaries of certain events or people.
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| Bordeaux Engraved Bottles and Special Labels Examples by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
In the collage above, I put a few examples of engraved bottles and special labels of famous Bordeaux wines (from left to right):
- Château Angelus 2012 - Angelus engraved the bottle of this particular vintage with 21-carat Gold to commemorate their promotion from Saint-Emilion 1er Grand Cru "Classé B" (since the classification of 1996) to 1er Grand Cru "Classé A" as the result of the Saint-Emilion Classification of 2012 (the latest classification of this appellation to date)
- Château Mouton Rothschild 2000 - Mouton Rothschild celebrated both the New Century and New Millenium by engraving the bottle of this particular vintage with a very finely chiseled and detailed replica of "The Augsburg Ram" in 24-carat Gold
- Château Margaux 2015 - Margaux offered the best tribute to the late Paul Pontallier, who joined the famous 1st Growth estate in 1983 at the age of 27 years old, a few years after graduating as an oenologist and agricultural engineer, became the Managing Director of this iconic wine estate in 1990. A position he proudly occupied until his passing in March 2016.
- Château Pavie 2012 - Pavie was also promoted from Saint-Emilion 1er Grand Cru "Classé B" (since the classification of 1996) to 1er Grand Cru "Classé A" as the result of the Saint-Emilion Classification of 2012 (the latest classification of this appellation to date), and marked the event by redesigning their label in black and gold for this particular vintage (a contrast with their usually so clear and colorful label)
- Château Mouton Rothschild 2003—Mouton Rothschild marked the 150th Anniversary (1853 - 2003) of the Château belonging to the Rothschild family by redesigning the label to be more conic and represent a sitting Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild. The bottle was heavier and had broader shoulders than usual Mouton bottles.
It is interesting to notice that for all these bottles cited as examples in the collage above, despite the engraving or label design changes, all the bottles were bigger, heavier, and thus made with thicker glass than the regular bottles usually used by these châteaux, respectively.
Aparté about the 2000s decade
As an essential aparté, we can also talk about the fact that the 2000s is also the decade when climate changes, global pollution, and global warming (which gradually increased since the late 1960s) became evident and irrefutable facts, with years starting to get hotter from one year to the next, generating "supposedly natural" disasters more often and more devastating from one year to the next all around the globe.
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Fig. 1. Annual mean, global (80S to 80N) temperature anomalies
(difference from the long-term 1980-2009 average) for the lower troposphere (TLT).
Graph courtesy of http://www.remss.com |
"Except for 1998, all of the warmest years occur after 2000, providing clear evidence of global temperature increase in the troposphere."
hwww.remss.com
Since then, the 2010s have only confirmed these climatic changes and their consequences, which seem to increase in size and strength and are more destructive and repetitive from one year to the next. It has become impossible for the skeptics to deny them anymore, their occurrence and frequency being so alarming and challenging in so many ways.
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"Napa, Sonoma wineries hit hard by wildfires" Article of October 9th 2017
- Photo courtesy of www.usatoday.com |
For example, Sonoma and Napa (and California overall) have been suffering from wildfires ravaging the vineyards and the coastline in general every year now. Before, it used to happen more scarcely and sporadically. We are even talking about "wildfire season" (like for anything else, instead of fighting and eventually eradicating the problem at the roots, humans got used to it as part of their yearly routine and gave it a name... sigh). We all sadly remember the wildfires of 2017 (250 wildfires in total), which started early October (October 9th) and lasted nearly a month before being fully extinguished, and ravaged the equivalent of 99,148 hectares of land (including woods, vineyards, wineries, and other buildings) and also destroyed at least 1500 homes. It was a nightmare. And it is now occurring yearly, not necessarily with the same intensity, but still. My thoughts go to all the people of California.
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Vineyards
Across Europe Are Ablaze —
Winemakers Light Torches To Stave Off The
Record-Breaking Cold
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Other examples of these catastrophic climatic changes are the late frost and hail storms now occurring nearly every year in Western Europe, reducing the annual production of thousands of producers, impacting the whole agriculture and forestry industry, and even destroying countless amount of vineyards and other crops:
- In 2016, some regions in Burgundy, like Chablis, lost about half of their harvest/crop due to frost, hail, and mildew. 2016 will be remembered as one of the country's smallest wine harvests for the last 30 years in records across France due to a mixture of hail, frost, and mildew.
- April 27th, 2017 - Devastating late frost occurred, destroying more than 40% of the early buds and thus the potential crops in Bordeaux vineyards
- May 26, 2018 - A devastating hail storm in Bordeaux seriously impacted regions like Blaye and Bourg, the Médoc, and the Entre-Deux-Mers, destroying up to 80% of the crop in some places (even 100% at the worst), which already suffered from another hail storm back in 2013.
- Early April 2019, especially the 13th, 14th, and 15th of April 2019 - Some regions are touched by a sudden frost, lowering the temperatures to 4 °C in some regions of France, while others are devasted by severe hail storms.
This was just an aparté, but I thought it was important to discuss these climatic changes and their consequences and impacts on the vineyards. I only took California and France as examples, yet these problems, directly or indirectly generated by these climatic changes, are nowadays occurring all around the globe.
NB: Sorry, I'm deviating from the main subject again (as usual), so let's return to the conversation about the bottles and labels made for special occasions, events, and/or people.
Examples of Bottle and Label Design Changes Over Time
Part 2
So, as I was saying before the "aparté," it is essential to mention the bottles produced for particular vintages, occasions, or other events, as they are generally rare occurrences in the world of fine wines, which usually tends to stay away from drastic changes and prefers to keep tradition and heritage for recognition rather than embracing innovation and creativity to transform their image. It is the case for fine wines as it is also the case for most luxury goods; changes in the world of the rich and famous Châteaux and Domaines are the results of a slow process requiring a long time of thinking and planning for the long term, and therefore cannot be the results of a hasty decision.
As already expressed above, some Châteaux produced special bottles with a different shape and/or heavier/thicker glass, embossed and/or showcasing a redesigned main label for the turn of the century and/or the turn of the millennial (i.e., vintage 2000), or for the anniversary of the Château or the owners.
In fact, if we take the first growths, Latour and Mouton-Rothschild are very good examples of these changes over time, compared to their counterparts, Château Haut-Brion, Margaux, and Lafite Rothschild, which never really changed their respective label, nor the shape of their bottles and/or the heaviness or the thickness of the glass.
Let's take Château Latour, for example:
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| Chateau Latour Bottle Shapes and Weight Evolution over time by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
In this "Château Latour" collage above (that I made for a better visual of what I'm trying to say), showing the evolution of the shape of the bottle they used over time, you can notice that Château Latour's bottles have changed a little over the years, as well as the label, which has slightly evolved:
- The 1949 vintage is a tall bottle with broad shoulders larger than the bottom of the bottle
- The 1964 vintage is a smaller, leaner, and straight bottle
- The 1985 vintage is a modern version of the 1964 vintage, less lean but still smaller and straight compared to the 1949 vintage
- The 2003 vintage is bigger, slightly taller with broader shoulders than 1964 and 1985, but it is more straight than 1949
- The 2011 vintage is back at what we call a more conventional Bordeaux bottle, taller and bigger than 1964 and 1985, but as straight as them, yet not as thick, heavy, or tall as 2003 and definitely not as 1949
As the scale of the size of these bottles (on my collage above) may not be correct, let's have a look at some pictures I took of some full and empty bottles of Château Latour (bottles I have at the office and in our headquarter's cellar), to see these differences. It might be a better visual.
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Chateau Latour 1952, 1953, 1961 and 1982 bottles
- by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
As you can see in the picture above:
- Château Latour's 1952 and 1953 vintages have higher and broader shoulders than both 1961 and 1982. The glass is also darker, thicker, and thus heavier
- Also, to a certain extent, the bottle of 1961 has a slightly narrower body and not as broad shoulders as the bottle of 1982
Once again, to prove it to the skeptics (who might not believe that I took these pictures and/or that I handle this type of old and rare bottles on a daily basis, and, last but not least, also for records and references purposes for future inspection, as I'm a Wine Quality control Director after all), I made some collages with pictures showing the weight of the empty bottles (not the full bottles as they are too expensive and I did not want to take them out of the cellar and handle them for too long, they are old ladies in need of TLC you know.... 😊 ...but I might another day for the purpose of another post).
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Château Latour 1950, 1961 x 2, 1982 empty bottles with bottle weights
- by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
As you can see in the picture above, the weight of these empty bottles of Château Latour varies quite a bit depending on the vintage. As mentioned above, the weight may even vary between two bottles of the same wine and the same vintage, as is the case for these bottles of 1961 vintage.
- Château Latour 1950 empty bottle weight is 628 gr (or 628 + 750 = 1,378 kg for a full bottle)
- Château Latour 1961 (1) empty bottle weight is 569 gr (or 569 + 750 = 1,319 kg for a full bottle)
- Château Latour 1961 (2) empty bottle weight is 594 gr (or 594 + 750 = 1,344 kg for a full bottle)
- Château Latour 1982 empty bottle weight is 545 gr (or 545 + 750 = 1,295 kg for a full bottle)
Let's do a graph to have a better visual:
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| Chateau Latour Bottle Weight Comparison by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
PS: I will try to find empty bottles of these specific bottles, weigh them with the mini-scale, and take pictures to show the difference in weight between these vintages and the difference in bottle shape, heaviness, and thickness of the glass used.
Chateau Mouton Rothschild
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Chateau Mouton-Rothschild Label Designs over the last 120 years
by ©LeDomduVin 2019 |
I did the collage above and, (as usual), started to write quite intensively (about the history and design evolution of the labels of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild) when I realized how long this post was already. So, I decided to create a brand new post solely dedicated to the history and design evolution of the labels of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, plus a few more chapters on the bottle shape, weight, and glass used for the bottles (like I did above for Chateau Latour).
Read my post on Chateau Mouton Rothschild
here
Conclusion
To conclude this lengthy post (where I derivated from the original subject and lost myself in too many details, as usual), and to give somewhat of an answer to the initial question, and based on the numbers in the various tables above, we can finally say that the weight of a full bottle of wine of 750ml (glass + volume) is roughly between 1.3 kg (or 2.866 lbs) and 1.8 kg (3.968 lbs), depending on the 2 main following factors:
- The shape of the bottles (size variations due to)
- Region
- Tradition
- Style
- Design
- Wine Type
- The thickness and heaviness of the glass (depending on)
- Trend
- Design
- Wine Type
- Winery's owner/Winemaker decision
Voilà! I think that answers the question... 😊
Fact: In this catastrophized time of climate changes, global warming, ever increasing pollution, weather control, and control over Mother Nature (by spraying chemicals into the air to modify the weather; also called "Cloud Seeding", a process of spraying common chemicals, including silver iodide, potassium iodide and/or dry ice (solid carbon dioxide), to dissipate heavy clouds and minimize the impact of hail storms and/or frost wave for example, or to simply prevent from rain to fall and maintain a blue sky and/or dimish the pollution in the air for specific events (e.g. 2008 Olympic Games in Bejing, China, for example) and/or for the venue of President or particular political personalities (occuring in Europe, USA, China, and probably elsewhere), and with men's failed attempts to change anything of his bad habits and behaviours over the last 70 years and the direct and indirect consequences these may have caused on the planet's environmental equilibrium, needless to say that the heavier the bottle is, the less "environment-friendly" it is (for the reasons you can imagine: production's energy and cost, weight, transport, logistics, etc...).
Tips: Diminish/reduce your use of plastic products. For example, do not buy any more water in plastic bottles. Buy a kettle water boiler (to boil tap water) and recycle a few of your empty bottles of wines (transparent if possible, like "Rosé" wine bottles) that you will refill with the boiled water on a daily basis (only once the water has cooled down, of course, please do not pour boiling water into a glass bottle as it may explode due to the heat - you've been warned). That is what I do at home, and as a family of 4, we easily drink 3 bottles of 750ml of water per meal (3 for lunch and 3 for dinner). That's about 4.5 Liters of drinking water a day!!! Evidently, you roughly know what you spend on drinking water in plastic bottles every week, so imagine the savings if you were using a kettle... moreover, you will contribute to helping preserve the environment. At the same time, you will reduce your carbon footprint by producing less non-recyclable trash and non-biodegradable waste. I'm just saying.
That's all, folks, for today!
Stay tuned for more posts like this one, and please leave me a comment below if you like.
Santé! Cheers!
Dom (aka LeDomduVin aka Dominique Noël)
PS: This post complements another one, "Bottle Dimensions," that I wrote two years ago and that you can read
here.
Step into the Green! Drink more biodynamic and organic wines (and food) from sustainable cultures and respect the environment! Preserve the Planet!
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