Well, if you’ve been keeping up the last few days, you know that (most) wine bottles have a deep, concave indention on their bottoms. You also know that that indention is called a punt. Now that we’re all aware that it’s there and what it’s called — is there a good reason for it?
Yes. Yes, there is — in fact, there are multiple good reasons, or at least some people think so.
Like most everything, there are different opinions as to what the “real” reason is…
So, since I’m home with no place to go, let’s explore some of the reasons. Here we go, in no particular order….
• The glass of the dimple (punt) part of the bottle is very thick and the shape helps provide strength to the bottom of the bottle. (The theory here is that since wine bottles are stored on their sides, a regular, thin-walled bottom could easily break should the bottle be tapped. Another fairly weak argument is that the extra weight at the bottom of the bottle gives it more stability, so it doesn’t fall over as easily.)
• Punts create an optical illusion that a wine bottle is bigger than it actually is. (I suppose your eyes can sometimes deceive your logic.)
• A punt at the bottom of a bottle increases the surface area, allowing more ice to come into contact with it and therefore chilling the liquid inside quicker.
• The angle of a punt lets sediment collect in a tight area near the base, stopping the sediment from blending back into the wine as it’s being poured.
• It’s often difficult to clean a tall glass evenly — when you shoot water into a wine bottle that has a punt, the water is spread more evenly throughout the bottom of the bottle.
• Punts allow for more ease when it come to stacking wine.
• The punt makes a good place for waiters, or anyone else, to place their thumbs while pouring the wine.
I ran across one story that indicated taverns at one time had a vertical steel pin in their bars. When a bottle of wine was consumed, the bottom of it would be punctured with the pins, ensuring that the bottle would not be refilled. This is kind of interesting, but I’m not sure why a bottle would have to have a punt in order to be punctured.
It appears that wine bottle manufacturing is steeped in tradition, and it isn’t clear whether any of the purposes listed above were specifically designed into the bottle for that purpose, or they were just part of the manufacturing process, or maybe just for esthetics.
So there is no consensus explanation for the purpose of the punt. My opinion — for what that’s worth — is that originally punts were used by glassblowers to make sure the bottles would stand upright. Today almost all bottles are machine-made. Most /many winemakers choose bottles with a punt to continue “tradition.” So whether your wine bottle has a large, small, or no punt — it’s the contents that count. Louis Pasteur said that a bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.
— 30 —