Nowadays, bottlers can theoretically put wine in any shape bottle they like, but there’s a reason most wines still adhere to the traditional shapes. The production of glass bottles didn’t become fully automated in the current, molded way until the early 1900s, by which time round bottles had become standard for wine. Glass historians report that the function of a bottle usually dictated its shape. Think of it as an early form of branding: Liquor, wine, medicine and soda bottles all had their own distinctive shape. When the Coca-Cola bottle debuted in the 1920s, its unique shape was an important part of the branding.

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