Why do champagne bottles have a dimple

A punt at the bottom of a bottle increases surface area, allowing more ice to come into contact with it and thus chilling the liquid inside quicker. Maybe we should indent our beer bottles too? One tale states that taverns had a vertical steel pin in their bars.

When a bottle of wine was consumed, the bottom of it would be punctured with the pins, ensuring that the bottle would not be refilled.

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This holds some merit. Punts increase surface area, so bottles in fridges or buckets of water might cool faster. But this theory is busted when you realize punts have been present on wine bottles long before anyone had heard of coolant for a refrigerator, or even ice for that matter. Sediment forms at the bottom of bottles as wine sits and ages. If you decant the wine, the sediment may remain in the valleys between the punt and bottle wall.

That can help with flavor. When a bottle of wine was consumed, the bottom of it would be punctured with the pins, ensuring that the bottle would not be refilled.

For the same reason as aluminum soft drinks cans do — to make them stronger and able to withstand a buildup of pressure within. In some cases fermentation continues after the wine has been bottled — and so pressure builds up behind the cork. A solid, thicker base, with greater surface area with which to handle the force from the wine, ensures the bottle will not burst from the pressure.

Bottles of Champagne and other sparkling wines have a deep punt. According to traditional winemaking methods, sparkling wine bottles are put upside down. The neck is placed downward, one on top of the other. For still wines, that is to say without bubbles, there is no need for such storage.

Though a theory suggest that in the old days punts made it easier to transport and store wine bottles as punts allowed the bottles to be stacked into each other, which reduced how much they move in transit.