Mark Lipton wrote:

Hah! You have just hit upon my current pet peeve. It's not just
limited to CA, though it's certainly more prevalent there. However, all
recent vintages of Ch. de Beaucastel and Ch. de la Gardine no longer fit
in my S. Rhone rack. And so many high end CA cabs (and, increasingly,
Zins) are put into bottles that are easily 50% more massive than the
traditional B'dx bottle. As their shoulders are wider than their base,
they don't stack well either. My biggest concern, however, is that the
increased weight of these bottles will lead to long-term instability of
my racking. Those racks weren't designed for so much extra glass. Grrrr...


I don't think this is a US problem. More and more low end wine companies
are using bottle design as a marketing tool. There are non-symmetric bottles
from France, very tall Chianti bottles from Italy, strange things from
Argentina. Lets not forget a bottle with a basket on the bottom and even
a bottle in the shape of a fish. If you can't sell the wine based on taste,
sell it with a different bottle design.