• Closure

Closures are used to seal wine bottles shut. There are several types of these closures
such as Cork closures and Screw Cap.
• Cork Closures
These closures let the wine expose to a very small amount of Oxygen. It allows wine
to breathe. There are some less-expensive wines that use synthetic corks. The
synthetic corks are made from plastic or rubber, hence they are cheaper than the
other type of cork.
• Screw Caps
Like synthetic cork, a screw cap is a cost-effective alternative for wineries. It is not
necessary that wines under screw caps are always cheap. Some of these types of
caps allow wine to breathe as they mature. Unlike cork closures, the wine under
screwcap will not be affected by cork-taint.
• Capsule
A metal wrapping around the closure is called Capsule. It holds cork tightly
preventing the wine from drying up or evaporating too quickly.
• Neck
Neck, below the closure, is a delicate part of the bottle which is used as a grip to
hold it. The perfect level of wine is when it reaches to the neck. If the wine-level is
lower than bottle’s neck, either the wine has leaked out or evaporated through the
cork during the ageing period.
• Shoulder
The shoulder is the slopping part after neck. Shoulders are not same in all
bottles. Some bottles do not have clear shoulders (i.e. Burgundy, Alsace) while
some of them have more conspicuous shoulders.
• Body
Body is the main part of a bottle. It is usually cylindrical but its diameter can
vary from bottle to bottle.
• Label
A sticker on the body is a label where you can find information about wine like
a volume of the wine, alcohol content by volume(abv), vintage, origin, grapes
name, etc.
• Punt
It is an indentation on the underside of the bottle given while forming the bottle
during the moulding process. This helps in strengthening the structure of a bottle
against the pressure of the wine.
• Heel
The heel is the bottom part of a bottle that helps the bottle to stand straight.
The physical shape of all wine bottles varies from one another based on the type of
wine it contains. Some bottles are long, some are short. There are 12 types of wine
bottles with different shapes.
Wine Bottle Shapes

Bordeaux Burgundy

Champagne
Mosel and
Alsace