Most Americans know what punting means in the football context, but I just learned the other day it is what the indent or dimple at the bottom of your wine bottle is called. There's a common myth that the deeper the punt, the higher quality of wine. While empirically I've found that more expensive bottles seem to follow this trend (watch, you'll all be feeling the bottom of your bottles now), many sources via Google state that there is no rhyme or reason for it. The speculation for the purpose of a deeper punt considers effects when pouring, dealing with sediment, balancing the bottle, or dealing with the temperature by increasing surface area.
Maybe one day, some winemaker will get creative and make the punt a feature of their bottle. Until then, we'll just have to keep speculating.
Don't forget the third definition of "punt" -- a flat-bottomed boat propelled by pushing off the bottom of the river with a pole, popular in England on the Cam and Isis. I've mixed plenty of wine with that type of punting (and, incredibly, no one has fallen into the river as a result).
ReplyDelete