Colorful wine bottles

When faced with a wide variety of wines, you may find that the colors of wine bottles are also different: most are green, but there are also brown, blue and even colorless. Is there any mystery in this?

In the 18th century, the use of glass bottles as containers for wine became popular. However, due to the technical conditions at the time, the iron impurities in the raw materials used to make glass could not be completely removed. Therefore, the glass bottles produced would appear green, and the use of such glass bottles has continued as a tradition.

Nowadays, with the development of technology, people can make colorless, transparent or other colored glass bottles. So why are most wine bottles still green?

In the storage of wine, avoiding light is one of the most important conditions, because light can accelerate the oxidation of wine, thus shortening its life cycle. Compared with colorless and transparent glass bottles, colored wine bottles can block part of the light, so they can better protect the wine. Scientific research has found that the protective effect of green glass bottles on wine is particularly obvious, which is another important reason why it is still widely used.

For some wines that are suitable for drinking when young and do not need aging, such as most white wines and rosé wines, they do not need to be aged for a longer period of time after bottling, and these wines usually have a refreshing taste, so wineries will also use colorless and transparent bottles to directly show their clear color, thereby stimulating consumers' desire to buy. For example, in Bordeaux, red wines usually use dark green bottles; dry white wines often use light green bottles; and sweet white and rosé wines mostly use colorless and transparent bottles.

It is worth mentioning that although most wines, especially red wines, are sold in colored bottles, the light-blocking effect of colored bottles is limited. When storing wine, it is best to place it in a light-proof environment. In addition, wines suitable for aging usually use colored bottles, but this does not mean that wines in colored bottles are suitable for aging.