Why do some wine bottles have indented bottoms

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

I have been at restaurants where “fancy” waiters pour wine with 3 fingers under the bottom of the bottle and their thumb in that dent. It looks elegant.

2

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990305b.html

Another thing - the indentation makes it very easy to cork the bottles - the corker has purchase on the bottom of the bottle, so it doesn’t slide when the cork goes in.

Not that Cecil is wrong or anything like that.

3

Cecil calls the dimple a “punt”, but IIRC the correct glassmaker terminology is “pontil”.

4

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a pontil is a glass-making tool, and “punt” means the indentation, but also sometimes means “pontil”. It doesn’t say that “pontil” sometimes means “punt”.

5

Righto! Wine bottles with contured bottoms are much easier to pour from.