There’s an environmental revolution happening in wine packaging with aluminium bottles and cans, and plastic bottles and pouches.
There’s a revolution happening in wine packaging prompted by the need to reduce the carbon footprint of glass bottles, which are responsible for 44 per cent of wine-industry emissions.
So we’re seeing winemakers trialling all sorts of alternatives – and yes, Brown Brothers has just announced the release of its first wine in an aluminium bottle. This bottle is 40 per cent lighter than glass and takes up a lot less space. It can also be recycled: take your empties to a recycling centre and pocket 10 cents for each one.
Screwcapped Prosecco ($25) is the first one and I suspect other “drink now” wines will follow. Brown Brothers says there’s no taste impact; the downside is the bottles have to be imported from the US, which would seem to undercut some of the environmental advantage.
Meanwhile, Margaret River has launched a Lightweight Glass Packaging Charter. Seven wineries have achieved the goal, which aims to cut emissions from packaging by 20 per cent through using lighter glass bottles. Another 10 wineries have indicated their intention to hit the target by the end of the 2026-27 financial year.
I’ve yet to try Brown Brothers’ aluminium-bottle wine, but I’ve tasted quite a few in aluminium cans and they’re perfectly OK – as long as your expectations aren’t unreasonably high. (Nobody’s putting their flagship cabernet sauvignon in a can just yet.)
Likewise, polymer pouches. Trentham Estate’s Three’s A Crowd range, as well as Margaret River-based Greenskin’s wines, are among the best I’ve tasted.
The thing to remember with pouches and cans (as with the old bag-in-a-box or wine cask) is not to keep them too long since the wine ages faster than in glass. I’ve tried wine in flat, plastic “eco bottles” and found that it lost its freshness very quickly.
The glass bottle is very yesterday – or, should I say, very 17th century, which is when it was first used to store and transport wine. I doubt it will disappear anytime soon, but alternatives are bound to proliferate. I wouldn’t put my money on aluminium bottles, though: aluminium is expensive and energy-hungry to produce, which sort of defeats the purpose.
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