The indents on the bottom of wine glasses, officially called punts, may only give the bottle a subtle appearance of looking larger and not have a practical use.

Historically, a glass wine bottle's seams were pushed inside during production to stabilize the bottom and protect hands while pouring. Today, its official purpose is undecided.

One thought is that punts catch the sediment that settles to the bottom, but the bottle's shoulder catches more dregs when the wine is poured correctly.

Some claim the punt reduces the transfer of heat while holding the bottle during service, but the heat from your hand to the bottle won't actually make that much of a difference.

These days, wine bottles are commercially manufactured, so a punt could be more of a signal of quality than a practical part of the bottle.

Chris Cree, one of only 53 Masters of Wine in the U.S., says, "The indirect impact is that punted bottles are more expensive, so cheap wines are not likely to use them."

A wine producer could certainly save costs on a good bottle of wine by bottling in a non-punted format, implying a tradition of bottling the wine industry takes very seriously.

A winery can also take advantage of this fact by putting a wine that isn't quite up to par in a punted bottle, but no one can truly agree on whether the punt has a purpose today.