🍷 Glass
Also known as: bottle glass, wine bottle glass, flint glass, amber glass, green glass, glass bottles
The glass that wine bottles are made of; its colour decides how much harmful light reaches the wine.
Bottle glass (wine bottle glass, flint, amber and green glass) is the glass wine bottles are made of, and its colour decides how much light reaches the wine. Clear glass, called flint, lets through the most. Green lets through less, and amber the least.
Researchers writing in OENO One measured the light that gets inside a bottle. For wine the harmful range is 320 to 440 nanometres, which is UV-A and violet. Up to 35 percent of it passes into a clear bottle and up to 8 percent into a bluish-green one. Light amber lets in up to 1.2 percent, dark amber just 0.2.
On a shop shelf that is a matter of days. By the authors' estimate, white wine in a clear or bluish-green bottle lasts a few days, and in light amber about a month. In 2022 researchers writing in PNAS tested 1,052 bottles of white wine. After 7 days in clear glass terpenes had dropped by 10 to 30 percent. Norisoprenoids lost 30 to 70. In coloured glass there was no such loss even after 50 days. The light-struck off-odour is described as boiled cabbage and wet dog.
Champagne goes into green, sometimes brown bottles, which limit UV penetration. There is more on this in light and wine. Compare a clear wine bottle with a dark one: the first looks lovely, the second protects. The same goes for sparkling wine from Champagne.
Facts
| Colour | Clear (flint), bluish-green, light and dark amber 1 |
|---|---|
| Main use | Shields wine from 320-440 nm light: clear lets in up to 35%, dark amber up to 0.2% 1 |
| Shelf life and storage conditions | White wine in clear or bluish-green glass: a few days on a shelf; light amber about a month 1 |
| Taste | Lightstrike off-odour: boiled cabbage, wet dog; clear glass terpenes -10-30% in 7 days 2 |
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Glass ← then ← 🍷 Wine bottle ← packed in ← 🍷 Wine
Links
- Previous step
- 🍷 Wine bottle
- What is packed
- 🌵 Mezcal, 🥃 Mezcal with worm (con gusano), 🥃 Tequila 100% agave (100% de agave), 🥃 Aguardente Bagaceira Bairrada, 🥃 Aguardente de Vinho da Região dos Vinhos Verdes, 🥃 Gönc apricot pálinka (Gönci Barackpálinka), 🥃 Nagykörű sweet cherry pálinka (Nagykörűi cseresznyepálinka), 🥃 Békés plum pálinka (Békési Szilvapálinka), 🥃 Aguardente Bagaceira da Região dos Vinhos Verdes, 🥃 Homokhátság peach pálinka (Homokháti őszibarack pálinka)
and 6 more
🥃 Szabolcs apple pálinka (Szabolcsi Almapálinka), 🥃 Szatmár plum pálinka (Szatmári Szilvapálinka), 🥃 Madaras quince pálinka (Madarasi birspálinka), 🥃 Nagykunság plum pálinka (Nagykunsági szilvapálinka), 🥃 Nagykunság quince pálinka (Nagykunsági birspálinka), 🥃 Kecskemét apricot pálinka (Kecskeméti Barackpálinka) - What it affects
- 🍷 Light strike
- Part of
- 🍷 Wine bottle
- Wine and milk
- 🍼 Bottle
Frequently asked questions
Why are wine bottles made of dark glass?
Dark glass cuts the UV and violet light that harms wine.
What colours does wine bottle glass come in?
Clear (flint), bluish-green, light amber and dark amber.
How long can white wine stay on a lit shelf in a clear bottle?
By the authors' estimate in OENO One, a few days; in light amber about a month.
How does light-struck wine smell?
Of boiled cabbage or wet dog, mostly in white wine in clear glass.
Is it true that bottle colour does not affect the wine?
No. In a 2022 study terpenes fell 10 to 30 percent in clear glass in 7 days, with no such loss in coloured glass after 50 days.
What to read next
- 🥃 Tequila 100% agave (100% de agave) — Tequila made only from sugars of blue agave from the area of origin, unlike the “Tequila” category, where other sugars may make up to 49%. Look for “100% de agave” on the label.
- 🌵 Mezcal — Mezcal is a Mexican distillate of 100% agave of any species, 35–55% ABV. Plain mezcal, artesanal and ancestral differ in oven, mill and still, not in age. Appellation of origin since 1994.
- 🍷 Light strike — A wine fault in which light makes white and sparkling wine smell of cooked cabbage, onion or rotten egg; dark glass protects against it.
- 🥃 Békés plum pálinka (Békési Szilvapálinka) — Plum pálinka from the Körös valley around Békés: at least half the plums are the local red Vörös szilva, aged in wood for 3 months or more; a protected EU name.
- 🥃 Szatmár plum pálinka (Szatmári Szilvapálinka) — Plum brandy from between the Tisza and the Szamos in Hungary: Penyigei and Besztercei plums, other plums up to 20 %, red plums prohibited; strength 40–86 % vol.
Similar
🍷 Wine label · 🍷 Punt (bottle) · 🍷 Bordeaux bottle · 🍷 Burgundy bottle · 🍷 Bocksbeutel · 🍷 Fiasco (bottle)
Sources
- Laposa Z. et al. In situ measurement of light transmission into wine bottles and calculation of shelf life. OENO One 57(1), 2023
- Carlin S. et al. Flint glass bottles cause white wine aroma identity degradation. PNAS 119(29):e2121940119, 2022
- Comité Champagne (CIVC). Champagne frequently asked questions