Bottling It - The times they are a-changing

Wine in glass bottles has been traditional for a very long time but now change is a-foot, says Carol Wright. The carbon foot print of the glass bottle is not planet friendly

- Carol Wright

The glass wine bottle dates back to Roman times and remains the best container for fine wines and wines that are meant to be aged. That pop of the cork as a bottle is opened adds more glamour to a dining experience.

It's the customer who still sees the glass bottle as an indicator of quality as compared with wine sold in boxes, card or metal containers. The carbon footprint of the glass bottle is not planet friendly - 80% to 90% of wine's carbon footprint comes from its packaging and transport in glass. The average glass bottle weighs 550g though wine producers are starting to pledge reductions to bottles under 420g and Canada is considering banning the import of heavy glass bottles altogether. All glass bottles need very high heat to mould them. Since most of the wine we buy is drunk within a couple of weeks, it seems rather extravagant to put it into long lasting glass.

There are several alternatives to glass but public perception needs to be overcome as has happened in the case of canned wines. Boxes (known as BIB - Bag in Box) were invented in the 1960s by Australian winemaker Thomas Angove who used the design of battery acid containers as his inspiration. Older wine drinkers still have memories of the poor quality oxidised wines then packaged in boxes, but younger drinkers have no such deterrents. BIBs are becoming widely accepted and sold by leading wine merchants and supermarkets.

As Kirsty Tinkler, founder and director of Wein Bib in the UK points out, glass is a hundred times heavier than BIBS; glass melts at 1700°C and needs a lot of natural gas to shape it. The UK imports 45% of its wine in bladders which is then bottled locally. BIB sales in the UK are still only 3% of the wine market compared to 60% in Scandinavia and 44% in France.