Why Wine is Stored in Colored Bottles?

Dressed up neatly in the ambers and greens, stands cellared your wide assortment of red and white—the wines!

Your friends of serenity, your companions of joy and celebrations.

But have you ever wondered why they are dressed in amber or green,and why not in some transparent bottles?

And if colored, then why only in amber or green?

Why not violet, blue, yellow or any other color?

The answer lies in an interesting blend of science and tradition…

We all know oxygen is good for wine.

“Let your wine breathe,” we have heard this phrase all too often. It allows its taste and aroma to let loose.

But too much oxygen is not good for wine. It can cause excessive oxidation of the compounds present in wine, and consequently turn your wine sour. Sometimes your exotic collection of wine may also start smelling like a rotten egg if the oxidation process is not controlled in a timely manner.

Thankfully, your wine has plenty of anti-oxidants present in it. These anti-oxidants limit the oxidation process and keep your wine tastings rich, pleasant and flavorful.

However, if you keep your wine in surroundings where it is exposed to ultraviolet or visible light rays (those in the blue end of the spectrum)—under the sun or artificial lighting—the rays can start killing the anti-oxidants. These rays can cause chemical degradation of the anti-oxidants present in your wine.

Gradually,your wine can lose every quality that makes it good.

Enter science…

To avoid that from happening, wines are stored in colored bottles.

Why colored bottles?

Because colored bottles can effectively block ultraviolet and visible light rays.

As you can see in the picture above, ultraviolet rays have lower wavelength than visible colors. When rays try to pass through a colored object, and the color of that object has a higher wavelength than the rays themselves, that object won’t let those rays pass through it.

Hence, storing wine in colored bottles protect it from the action of ultraviolet rays.

But why only amber or green colored bottles are preferred?

Because, it’s not only the ultraviolet rays that can cause damage to your wine. As discussed, visible blue light rays can also cause damage to it.

To block blue visible light rays, your bottle of wine should be colored with a color that has a higher wavelength than blue. This implies, you can use green, yellow, orange, red or amber colored bottles to store wine.

However, since traditionally, wine bottles have always been green or amber colored, this tradition is maintained even today.

It’s the interesting blend of science and tradition that has stitched a green and amber identity to the world of wines.

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A BONUS read: 6 Cool and Creative Uses of Glass Jars (A Sunday Inspiration)