trivial trivia

[Rockoboy]

I like all the threads where @Mjolnir has had a significant input ... I think he's habit-forming!

[billybopp]

11 hours ago, fredk said:

The concave bottom is to counter the pressure of the fermentation gases within the bottle

Correct!  And to take it a little further, champagne bottles have a much more pronounced indentation and much thicker glass to contain the carbonation pressure.  Furthermore, that was one of the key developments made by Dom Perignon.  Bottles tended to explode before he made the above modifications.

- Bill 

[fredk]

Ok, since I won that round its my turn.

What is the common link between a boot/shoe lace and something which denotes a military rank?

[Mjolnir]

7 hours ago, billybopp said:

Correct!  And to take it a little further, champagne bottles have a much more pronounced indentation and much thicker glass to contain the carbonation pressure.  Furthermore, that was one of the key developments made by Dom Perignon.  Bottles tended to explode before he made the above modifications.

- Bill 

Plausible but not definitive. Certainly makes sense in a champagne bottle. There are several theories for the 'punt'. I like the one that winemakers were cheating out of an extra glass of wine. Just like when I open a fat bag of chips and its half full. ( I'm an optimist lol!). I had all ways heard it was for turning the bottle 'Riddling'. the wine maker would stick their thumb into the punt and give it a twist every few months.

[Mjolnir]

1 hour ago, fredk said:

Ok, since I won that round its my turn.

What is the common link between a boot/shoe lace and something which denotes a military rank?

This should be good! I'm stumped. I do know that I didn't lace my shoes correctly until the military taught me how.

[JMixx]

I am wondering if there is any relationship between the "punt" in the bottom of a wine bottle and the tendency of red wine to accumulate a tiny amount of sediment in the bottom of the bottle.  Perhaps that indentation alters the way the wine flows out of the bottle, and reduces disturbance to the sediment, preventing it from flowing into the glasses (or decanter)?

Jennifer

[Mjolnir]

24 minutes ago, JMixx said:

I am wondering if there is any relationship between the "punt" in the bottom of a wine bottle and the tendency of red wine to accumulate a tiny amount of sediment in the bottom of the bottle.  Perhaps that indentation alters the way the wine flows out of the bottle, and reduces disturbance to the sediment, preventing it from flowing into the glasses (or decanter)?

Jennifer

That is one of the answers!

[fredk]

I'll leave my question open for a while longer

As for wine, many old practices have dropped away from lack of use. One was wine was to be poured into a decanter, then from that to a glass, whilst pouring into a decanter the wine was to be poured through a fine sieve to remove any lees [the sediment] Also, your host was to offer you the use of a tongue scraper, if you had not brought your own.

There are various explanations for the concave base of a wine bottle. Most do not stand up to study

eg; it was done by glass blowers so that bottles could stand up-right. 1. At the time the concave bottom on glass bottles was introduced carbonated soft drinks were in favour and they had a pointed bottom end. 2. both wine and the early carbonated drinks were meant to be stored laying down. Wine should still be kept this way if it has a natural cork stopper; its to keep the cork wet to stop air getting into the bottle and spoiling the wine. 3. laying flat the lees cannot collect in the ring around the concave part. 4. see above, in 'proper' use wine should be decanted through a filter before it goes to a glass; modern drinkers take the wine straight from the bottle. 5. At the time the glass wine bottle was introduced the glass blowers were blowing their glass into  moulds for the bottles so they had no opportunity to manually push the base of the bottle inwards. 6. There is evidence that clay/pottery wine bottles made in Flanders in the 18thC had a modest concave bottom. These clay bottles were to be stored laying down as well, many of them had a flat along the side so they could lay down and not roll.

A wine with lees is a fresh wine; lees is the dead yeast after fermentation. Its not harmful to drink them, but they don't taste nice. I make my own wine and I have wine over 10 years old which is still fermenting slightly and dropping lees. The older the wine the less lees. During the aging fermentation a wine should be decanted regularly into a fresh fermentation container to take it off the old lees.

 

 

[JMixx]

51 minutes ago, Mjolnir said:

That is one of the answers!

And I just guessed!  Apparently drinking wine DOES make a person smarter! (hic)

[Mjolnir]

15 hours ago, Rockoboy said:

I like all the threads where @Mjolnir has had a significant input ... I think he's habit-forming!

That is what your Nun says.