All About Wooden Wine Crates (OWC's)

Original wooden wine boxes and wine crates (OWC's) are made by individual wineries to store and protect their high value wines. Generally, only the finest marquis wineries produce wine crates. The vast majority of wine makers store their wines in cardboard boxes.

Wine crates include a lid (top or cover):

And inserts:

Inserts come in cardboard or wood. The inserts keep the bottles still in the crate

The average dimensions of a 12 bottle crate: 19 1/2" L X 13" W X 7" H

The above are 12 bottle crates, but there a few other sizes. Below is a 6 bottle crate:

The average dimensions of a 12 bottle crate: 13" L X 11" W X 7" H

The most alluring quality of original wine crates are their logo designs. Most wineries have unique pictures that are engraved on each of their crates. Many of these logo designs were inspired by historical events, priceless artwork, and breathtaking imagery of thousand year old castles or vineyards.

There are many countries that produce wine, and in those countries are wine making regions.

The most commonly known country with vineyards that make wine crates is France. The region of Bordeaux makes the highest volume of wine crates in France. Second to Bordeaux is Burgundy.

Wine crate from Burgundy:

*The quick way to tell that this is a Burgundy crate is by reading the text on the crate. The word Bourgogne is a dead giveaway. Some wineries don't include wording, but this strategy works 60% - 70% of the time with crates from Burgundy.

Bordeaux vineyards have been making wine crates for a great many generations. Most of the wine crates from Bordeaux are 12 bottle sized.

Bordeaux wine crate:

*Bordeaux crates almost always list their repective sub-regions. In this case you are able to see Saint-Emilion on the top of the crate. St. Emilion is a very famous sub-region of Bordeaux.

Most of the crate pictures above are 12 bottle crates except for the Brunello Di Montalcino.

12 bottle wine crates are designed to hold twelve 750 ML Bordeaux style wine bottles. Bordeaux bottles are all vitrually identical in size. This is because of the AOC (Appellation d'Origine Controlee). The english translation is essentially Original Appellation Control. This was established as a means to keep all Bordeaux wineries as consistant in winemaking as possible.

Bordeaux wine bottle sizes (90% of the time are): 12 1/4" H X 3 1/8" W

There is a common misconception that all 750 ML wine bottles are the same size no matter where they are from. This is not the case. Napa Valley vineyards for instance are not held to the standards of the AOC. They can change anything about their wines at any time. This includes the width and height of their bottles at any time.

This was one of the major reasons we began custom-making wine crates for our clients. More on that later..

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