(Thedrinksbusiness) - Estate-bottled wine – an anomaly of the 20th century? Until the early 20th century virtually all wine was shipped in bulk and bottled by the merchants who bought it. This included top-quality wines such as Bordeaux first growths – Château Margaux was still being shipped in bulk up to the 1948 vintage. Quality-focused producers then developed a penchant for estate-bottled wine and shipping in bulk fell out of favour. In the last couple of years, however, shipping wine in bulk has started to make a comeback. There are a number of reasons for this, the main one being fiscal, but there are also environmental and quality considerations