Receptacles for storing wine and other alcoholic beverages have been around since they were first produced. The Egyptians already knew about glass production and used glass bottles as well as clay jugs. In the ancient world, amphorae made of clay were common in Greece and Rome, which were coated with resin on the inside. The Romans already used the cork as closure. However, vessels made of bronze were also common in antiquity; in 1952 a 1.64-metre-high bronze cauldron was found in the grave of a Burgundian princess, which was used to transport wine from Greece. Various vessels used for storage or drinking were Kantharos, Krater and Oinochoe, among others.
In ancient Greece, there were hardly any wooden barrels known for the storage or transport of wine, but the historian Herodotus (482-425 B.C.) reports of such barrels made of palm wood in the city of Babylon. It is considered fairly certain that the Celts used wooden barrels for transport on a large scale as early as 600 BC, and that the Greeks and Romans then adopted this craft. Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.) first became acquainted with wooden barrels during his Gallic campaign around 50 B.C. and the Roman author Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.) described them as a vessel unknown to his Roman contemporaries. It was around this time that the Romans began to use wooden storage containers, mainly made of fir wood.
In the city of Pompeii, which was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, remains of barrel-shaped wooden containers were found. It is likely that wooden barrels were also used extensively for ship transport from the middle of the third century onwards. For from this time on, archaeological finds concerning wine shipments in the form of clay vessels such as amphorae or at least ceramic shards in shipwrecks became increasingly rare. The probably oldest wine bottle in the world with contents is exhibited in the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer. It dates from the 4th century AD. Until the beginning of the 17th century, however, wine was almost always stored in wooden barrels, which, in addition to a lack of hygiene, could lead to secondary fermentation or spoilage after each opening. Then an enormous improvement in quality was achieved by using glass bottles and corks. Wine now became much more durable, moreover, it developed further in the bottle. Nevertheless, until well into the 20th century, bottling was the exception rather than the rule.
The EU wine market organisation that came into force in 2009 also brought changes to the authorised wine containers. Until then, quality wines could only be sold to consumers in glass bottles, wooden barrels or sintered ceramic containers. In order to increase the competitiveness of the EU member states vis-à-vis third countries, especially from overseas, this provision was deleted without replacement. Quality wine may therefore now be bottled without restriction in a wide variety of containers such as Bag-in-Boxes, KeyKeg or Tetra Pak (carton). The materials used for the various containers for vinification and storage are mainly stainless steel, glass, wood, concrete, granite, ceramic (earthenware) or plastic.
Today, the tanks for fermentation are mostly made of stainless steel or concrete and can hold up to 30,000 litres; they are essential for temperature-controlled fermentation. However, wooden barrels are also used (see under barrel fermentation). Tanks made of stainless steel, ceramics or concrete are common for the ageing process, whereas oak barrels are indispensable for a barrique ageing process (see also Wood chips). The blending of cuvées takes place in particularly large stainless steel tanks up to 1.5 million litres. The mass transport is mostly carried out in stainless steel tanks with a volume of 25,000 litres. Glass containers are only available in one size up to about 65 litres, they are used as an alternative for small wooden barrels. Wine containers from antiquity until now:
See further lists on the topics "containers" and "volumes" under the keywords barrel, barrel types, surface dimensions, bottles, largest barrel in the world, hollow dimensions and records.
Barrels and fermentation tanks: Pixabay