WINE BOTTLES: THE IMPORTANCE OF GLASS COLOR FOR WINE
Wine bottles come in a variety of colors; glass is generally available in shades of green, brown, or clear. One may think that as a winemaker you base your color choice on preference, but this is not always the case. Winemakers will consider several factors when choosing between the colors of wine bottles. One balances his or her decision between the best practices in aesthetics (packaging), whether or not you want to showcase the wine color, the desired level of UV protection, and any consumer expectations such as traditional European bottling concepts. The considerations can be summed up as follows:
And/or some balance between marketing, tradition, and wine integrity
Traditional European Uses
Traditional European bottle shapes and colors play Cheap white wine significant roles in the wine industry; in effect, many winemakers base their glass color selection on tradition. If one is making Cabernet Sauvignon in California, he or she may want to choose a bottle that reflects the wine’s European counterpart, such as Bordeaux, which can be an effective marketing tool that connects the consumer to their inspiration. If you’re basing your decision on tradition, you might want to reference the glass colors of France and Germany.
Green is the standard glass color of wine bottles from Champagne, France. White wines from the Mosel region in Germany are bottled in Champagne green glass too, but white wines from the Rheingau are bottled in amber (brown) glass. Antique green (amber/green) is commonly used for French Bordeaux wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and other reds. On the other hand, dead leaf green or antique green is the traditional glass color for French Burgundian Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Marketing
One may prefer to base their choice of glass color on visual aesthetics, design, and packaging. Some winemakers choose a bottle based on the color schemes associated with the label design, or the choice may be based on a presentation that fits a given marketing goal. Occasionally, we even see blue bottles! This seems to be driven by marketing. Flint/clear bottles may fit in this category because the clear glass displays the color of the wine, which could be considered a marketing goal. After all, presentation and sales are certainly an important aspect to the wine business, and this should certainly be a factor.
Wine Integrity
Wine integrity is probably the most important consideration to make when choosing between glass colors. One will need to choose between a clear bottle that displays the wine color or a dark bottle color that provides UV protection. Not only is wine sensitive to both sunlight and fluorescent light, but an hour of sunlight can change the flavor of a wine and produce off-flavors, which are sometimes called lightstruck flavors.
A photochemical reaction occurs in wine after exposure to light wavelengths between 350-500 nanometers (nm), and most damage happens when exposed to 370- 440 nm. Light wavelengths can pass through the glass of a wine bottle and stimulate the riboflavin that’s naturally present in wine. The wine contains about 0.4mg/liter of riboflavin; cysteine and methionine amino acids are present in wine at about 1-4 g/liter. Once riboflavin is stimulated, it reacts with the cysteine and methionine to form hydrogen sulphide and mercaptans or 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol (MBT). You want to avoid mercaptans because they have the unpleasant lightstruck flavors of rotting leaves, cooked cabbage, leek, onion, skunk, wet wool, soy etc. Since humans are flavor and aroma sensitive to mercaptans at about 4 ng/liter, these products are really overpowering, and winemakers try to minimize them by choosing colors of glass that offer different levels of UV protection.
