Plastic wine bottles – the future?

I can hear you shrieking in horror at the very suggestion.  Surely that’s just for the most basic plonk you cry. Well no, its proper wine this time. And it may well spread as part of the wine industry’s drive to become more environmentally friendly.

Artisan Wine Company of British Columbia have launched 2 new wines in their painted turtle range using the latest PET bottles. The semilion/chardonnay and the cabernet/shiraz are in two different shaped bottles.

Plastic wine bottles - the way ahead?

These full sized screw cap bottles weigh only a tenth of normal bottles, and reduce packaging requirements by about 85%. It also enables a pallet to be loaded with 20% more bottles. All of which adds up to a reduction in carbon footprint of a third.

The clever bit is a new interior coating of silicon oxide, called SIG Plasmax. This creates a long life barrier that stops the wine and the plastic interacting. So no plastic taint on the wine and no rotting of the bottle. And as it doesn’t degrade, the wine can be matured in the bottle in the cellar for an extended period, rather than just bottle and drink.

These new bottles are fully recyclable in the normal way with other PET products.

You may well still be thinking it will never happen, that plastic will never be taken seriously. Just remember that 10 years ago that’s what people were saying about screwcaps! I think that this will become the standard for everyday wines within 10 years.