Packaging update: Thinking outside the bottle

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” is a cliché taught from earliest childhood. Yet, often, this is exactly what consumers do. Especially when it comes to wine. Because the label is such an eye-catcher on the shelf and on the screen.
Despite the fact that we now know that glass accounts for well over a third of a wine’s total carbon footprint; that the shipping and manufacture of glass bottles account for more than half of a producer’s greenhouse gasses; that switching from glass to alternative formats could save, for example, “as much as 750,000,000kg CO2e of emissions every year in the UK alone”... we continue to believe the 400-year-old tradition that wine belongs in glass.
When ProWein tackled this topic in 2023, the wine fair’s survey focused on alternative packaging. A year later and the topic is more current than ever with the latest advancements on display through all 13 exhibition halls at ProWein 2024. So what are the latest developments in wine packaging?

The Unbeatable Lightness of Glass

Curiously, the thing that has been receiving the most attention over the last year is not alternative packaging but rather an alternative approach to traditional packaging. It even has its own word: lightweighting.
At the end of last year, European glass manufacturer Verallia announced that it had designed the lightest Bordelaise-shaped bottle in the world at just 300 grams. The previous best was just under 400g. A standard 750ml glass wine bottle weighs on average around 575g, with some heavyweights topping the scales at 900g.
Production for the Bordelaise Air 300G is scheduled to begin later this year. Verallia also concluded tests in March of last year on the lightest Champagne bottle. The new 800g bottle shaves 35g off the previous lightest weight, thus representing 4% less CO2 emissions per bottle.
Italian biodynamic producer Alois Lageder has released a lightweight Burgundy-style bottle developed with Swiss glass manufacturer Vertropack. This move has reduced the producer’s annual glass consumption by 17%, or 87 tons. The altruistic Lageder family is choosing to leave the 450g bottle, called Summa, unpatented with the hope that it will motivate other producers to “lightweight” themselves.
There is growing pressure within the industry on producers to lower their environmental footprint. German grower association Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP) reported that last year 45 of the organisation’s 200 members used the embossed lightglass bottles for their cru (GG) wines. The specially designed bottles weigh 580g, down from 750g.
And more examples exist along the entire supply chain. British wine critic Jancis Robinson, a vocal advocate of lightglass, now includes bottle weight in her review scores on her website. And Swedish monopoly Systembolaget introduced strict weight limits for disposable bottles of both still and sparkling wines as of March 1, 2024.

Element[AL] of Surprise

But what happens when you rethink glass entirely? Earlier this year, California brand Element[AL] wines debuted a 750ml aluminum bottle at the 2024 Sundance film festival. At only 90g, the aluminum “bottle” is 80% lighter than the average glass wine bottle and 100% recyclable. While wine in tin is far from new, this is the first-to-market aluminum to echo the traditional wine bottle silhouette and volume.
“We began by looking for ways to lightweight our existing glass bottles, and that led to a more radical approach that we feel consumers are ready to embrace,” said vice president of consumer relations, Jody Bogle. The design, according to the company, represents three years of intense research. Thinner walls and no punt mean that up to 43% more wine cases (roughly 5,216 kg/11,500 pounds) can be transported per truckload, and the overall shipping weight is 3% less than that of glass. The metal containers are 100% recyclable and the deco design is printed directly on the bottle eliminating the need for a label. The complete range currently includes four wines from sustainable California vineyards, including two barrel-aged varieties. “We believe,” Bogle adds, “that wine in aluminum doesn’t have to be for lesser quality or special varietals.”


However, not everyone is a fan of braving the elements. And so if you’re looking to kick the tin down the proverbial road (or entirely!), 2023 saw a number of alternatives from flax to fibre gain market traction as well.

Paper or plastic?

We’ve been writing about British company Frugalpac’s paper wine bottle since 2021, but last year it hit the headlines for a royal debut in Bordeaux and for a crucial role in the Netflix crime thriller Bodies, posing as “the wine of the future” for a storyline set in 2053.
The 83g Frugal bottle is a food grade pouch covered by a paperboard outer layer made from 94% recyclable paperboard. According to the company, this translates into a carbon footprint that is 84% lower than glass bottles.


Like Element[AL]’s aluminum bottle, each Frugal bottle holds 750ml of wine and echoes the shape of a traditional wine bottle. Frugal bottles are now available in 25 countries, with a significant presence in major UK supermarkets.
Part of what sets Frugalpac apart is that the company is looking to sell the assembly machines into local wine-producing regions rather than the bottles in order to lower transportation and carbon emissions impact. The first two, Monterey Wine Company in the USA and KinsBrae Packaging in Canada, are due to become operational in the first half of 2024.

It’s What’s Inside that Counts

Of the nearly 2,500 producers, trade, and consumers polled for the 2022 ProWein Business Report, 60% of producers and 45% of trade said they had no plans to offer anything other than glass for the next two years. The pushme-pullyou of wine is that while we know there are better, more effective, more responsible containers, for many, giving up the familiarity and tradition of glass can simply be “a sip too much”.
Trends on show at this year’s ProWein seem to have taken that into account and focused on rethinking packaging material rather than packaging size. The irony is that while these choices are key to reducing wine’s overall carbon footprint, in order to change the minds and buying decisions of consumers, the same level of attention and considerations of quality must be applied to the wine inside the vessel as well.
For the follow-up to that childhood cliché holds equally true for wine as well: it’s what’s inside that counts.