“Winemakers tend to put their best bottlings—tête de cuvée, they call them—and the best vintages, wines they’re really truly proud of, they’ll put into a large format,” says Joe Robitaille, head sommelier at Bar Boulud in New York City, where he opens one large-format bottle each night to pour by the glass. “And the reason they do that, it’s a little bit of a time-capsule effect because the wine will age much more slowly and much more gracefully inside of the really thick glass of the large bottle.”
Winemakers tend to put their best bottlings
