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The Alsatian bottle, nicknamed the "Rhine flute" or "Alsatian flute", is immediately recognizable among all the bottles of the French wine world. Slender, elongated, and in a characteristic emerald green, it is the only permitted bottle shape for AOC Alsace wines, with the exception of Crémants. This regulatory requirement dates back to 1959 and aims to assert the region's strong visual identity on shelves and tables around the world. This silhouette is shared with German and Austrian wines, a legacy of a common Rhenish history shaped by centuries of cross-cultural influences. Beyond its symbolic value, this long, narrow bottle offers a practical advantage: it slightly slows the aging of the wine by limiting the surface area in contact with the cork, which is particularly suited to the age-worthy white wines produced in Alsace.
Why do Alsatian wine bottles have such a distinctive shape?
