bottle shape & color

The bottles of France's Burgundy region have sloping shoulders, while those from Bordeaux have high shoulders. The tall, slender bottles of Germany (commonly called flutes) are from the Rhine.

In Germany, green bottles come from Moselle and Alsace, while brown bottles are used for Rhine wines.

A light colored bottle of wine may signify that the wine is to be drunk young. While it is commonly held that darker bottles are needed for longer cellaring.

At the bottom of many bottles can be found an indentation called the "punt" or "push-up." There are a variety of reasons given for its existence which range from a structural require of sparkling wines (flat-bottomed bottles would tend to blow up!), to this is a space needed for sediment to congregate in.