Does Your Bottle Shape Matter?

24th November 2020

Champagne & Sparkling Wine Bottle Sizes

When it comes to buying a bottle of Champagne or Sparkling Wine, how much does the shape of the bottle influence you?

We all buy things with our eyes, seeing something pleasing to you, will make it more likely that you would choose that product over another.

When you normally think of bottle shape, you think of the mini bottles, the standard sized bottles and the magnums, but I want to focus more on the shape of the bottles rather than how much alcohol is in them, so not even looking at the labels, just the shape of the glass bottle.

Please note that we are looking solely at the bottle shape, not the label, the wine inside or the winery, all these Champagnes and Sparkling Wines deliver exciting tasting experiences.

The Difference From Standard

In the picture on the left is a standard bottle, the one you would find on most supermarket shelves, the other two bottles are slightly different.

There is a slight change in the design of the bottles, even small changes like this can influence you, normally on a more sub conscience level.

The first one (Left Side) is the standard bottle shape, so you might feel safe just going for the norm, it’s something you’ve seen time and time again, so you know it’s a good shape.

The second one (Middle) makes me think more of a celebration bottle, where it gets wider in the middle before going up to a slim neck.

The third (Right Side) reminds me more of a bottle you would have at a fancy sit down dinner party, a bottle that perhaps contains some ageing elegance.

Which one would you pick? There’s no right or wrong answer here, just like we all enjoy the different flavours or Sparkling Wines, we also enjoy the different bottle shapes.

I also wanted to include this image, because these bottles are slightly taller than the first three, but the shape of the bottles is very similar, they still contain the same amount of sparkling wine inside, but they opted for a slightly bigger bottle.

There are slight differences between these and the first three, would you still pick the same or does the slightly bigger size change things?

The Width of the Bottle

Going for a shorter bottle design but with a larger base, what do you think of these bottle designs, 1 & 3 looks rather similar with 2 standing out in this picture thanks to the size and the fact you can see inside, there are ups and downsides to seeing inside the bottle, but that’s a topic for another article.

The first and third bottles are very similar in design, you can see a difference, but this would come very much down to personal choice.

The second bottle (Middle) has a wider base with a longer neck, and an emblem on the front, it’s an attractive bottle and as the label shows, it seems like a perfect bottle for a masquerade party.

Bottle Branding

Seeing a little emblem or engraving on the bottle does two things, it tells you that the winery has money to spend on creating their own unique bottles and it draws your eye.

The first bottle (Left Side) hasn’t just added it’s logo onto the bottle, it’s created it’s very own and patented bottle design, that can easily be identified without any labelling on the bottle.

The second bottle (Middle) is in a similar field, with their own branding on the bottle and a unique bottle bottom, it’s not so evident on the picture, but it does have it’s own design.

The third bottle (Right Side) doesn’t have any custom cuts, but it still has it’s owl logo embedded onto the bottle.

These things cost a lot more than buying a standard bottle, but they become memorable to the customer, it’s yet another thing that can be remembered about your bottle, it draws your attention and can make you choose them over their competitors.

Final Words

Of cause all this comes down to our own personal opinions, when we buy Champagne or Sparkling Wine, we buy mostly using our emotions, so it’ll depend on the type of day you’ve had, how you’re feeling and how much money you want to spend, we don’t need Sparkling Wine to survive, it’s just something that makes our lives more enjoyable, so when we buy it, we want to feel like we’re spending our money on something worthwhile.

Oliver Walkey

Champagne and Sparkling Wine Writer, Focused on Bringing the Exciting and Fascinating World of Bubbly to You.