Wine Bottle Punt is not merely a design, there’s something more to it!
By THC on 31st March 2017, Priscilla Lee
If you were to examine one of your latest wine purchases, do you realise that besides its long and slender neck, a corked or screw-capped top and an eye-catching label, there is an indent (commonly known as a punt)
Although not every single wine bottle has a punt, most of them do. However, the reason why these little indents exist have always been ambiguous as there are multiple theories behind their existence. We will be looking at the few most plausible theories below — let us know which one your consensus!
1. The punt makes it much easier to hold a wine bottle.
If you try to grab your wine bottle from the bottom, the punt will act as a spot to place your thumb while the rest of your fingers grab the base of the bottle.
2. The punt makes the bottle stand upright.
Glassblowers creates these punts in order to push the seam of a bottle up, which makes them stand upright while preventing glass at the bottle’s base to protrude or hurt the users.
3. The punt creates an optical illusion that a wine bottle is bigger than it actually is.
If you try to compare two 750ml bottles (with and without a Punt), the latter, without a doubt looks like it contains more wine than the other. We call it the Placebo effect.
4. The punt catches sediment.
The angle of the punt allows the sediments to collect in the tight area near the base, which stops the sediments from mixing with the wine again whilst decanting.
5. The punt makes it easier to clean the bottle before being filled with wine again.
It is a tedious task to clean a tall bottle (or even a glass) evenly; which was perhaps what the glassblowers had in mind when they finish the bottle with a punt.
6. The punt allows pressure from the wine (especially sparkling) to be equalized.
Before the punt was invented, sparkling wines used to explode frequently when it is being stored in the cellar and more so, during transportation. With the punt, the carbon dioxide is distributed evenly within thus reducing the “time bomb” effect.
