Bottles: Modern bottles

Choice of label and foil are not the only ways in which a wine producer can make a visual statement to a potential customer. Wine bottles are now made in an almost bewildering array of shapes, weights, colours of glass, and design, quite apart from their capacity (see bottle sizes).

In some regions one specific bottle has been adopted by all but the most anarchic producers, and indeed adoption of a special local, regional, or appellational bottle became particularly fashionable in the 1980s. Examples of special bottles are the heavy, embossed châteauneuf-du-pape bottle (which comes in several rival versions); the bocksbeutel of franken; the château grillet bottle peculiar to a single property; and the long-necked green bottle particular to muscadet, although it can sometimes seem that every French appellation has developed its own exclusive bottle.