🍷 Bocksbeutel

The Bocksbeutel is a flat, round bottle for the wines of Franconia in Germany. Its shape is easy to recognise: it resembles a flattened flask with a short neck. The bottle is one of the special kinds of wine bottle. This shape traditionally belongs to Franconia, a wine region on the river Main. Here it has been reserved for local wines, above all those from Silvaner and Müller-Thurgau. The shape may be used only in certain areas, so it serves as a mark of origin. A few areas outside Franconia also have the right to it. The bottle has hardly changed for centuries and has become a symbol of the region. It sits well in the hand but is awkward to store in ordinary racks, because it must be laid on its side and does not fit standard slots. The volume is usually 0.75 litres. For a buyer the Bocksbeutel is a signpost: from such a bottle you can see that the wine is Franconian. It is often used as a souvenir.