“It’s mission critical now.” That’s the view of Interpunkt’s Andrew Ingham on how quickly the wine industry needs to switch to alternative packaging, but how likely is the sector to seriously move away from glass bottles. Phoebe Phillips reports.
There seem to be two camps when it comes to alternative packaging in wine. One believes change is not just inevitable, but essential, the other is still firmly of the view “if it ain’t broke…”
The former camp argues the wine industry needs to act if it is to be in tune with growing consumer demand to buy products that are sustainable, environmentally healthy and help cut carbon emissions. Wine brands need to adapt with these concerns in mind.
In the latter camp are those who can’t yet see the reason to change a supply chain, dominated by glass packaging, that has worked well for so long and is so entrenched in established wine drinkers modus operandi.
Richard Bampfield MW is someone with a foot very much in the former camp, both as an advocate for alternative packaging and a consultant to the industry body, the Sustainable Wine Roundtable, that has been set up to help the industry become more environmentally sustainable. He admits we have a long way to go: “I would suggest that reports of the demise of the glass wine bottle are highly premature. It is far too entrenched in both the culture of wine drinking and the operations of the logistics chain to be on its way out yet. Therefore, whilst we research and trial alternative formats, it is essential that we explore ways of reducing the carbon footprint of glass. Up until now, the emphasis has been on recycling but this only takes us so far.”
Indeed, over 45% of the total energy in making a bottle of wine is in the bottle itself given glass’s 17000c melting point. One leading alternative packaging solution is Frugalpac, which invented The Frugal Bottle, made from 94% recycled paperboard with a food grade pouch, which claims to be five times lighter than glass, with six times lower carbon footprint.
Frugalpac’s chief executive, Malcolm Waugh, points out the cost and carbon benefits of substituting glass packaging: “Every glass bottle created will put on average 466 grams of carbon into the atmosphere and the same when recycled. Clearly the cost of running the furnaces and shipping heavy weight glass is significantly increasing so alternative formats ultimately become the solution for lower carbon and lower cost.”
That is not to say there is no place for glass altogether in wine’s future. Andrew Ingham, founder of Interpunkt Wines, who has created a brand specifically around using the Frugalpac format, says: “Some wines are clearly suited to be in glass, premium wines that you might hold onto for some time, for aging, or for gifting, fair enough. But I don’t see any wines like that on supermarket shelves.”
Retailer pressure
This is a recurring theme in the alternative packaging movement that it is the major retailers that hold all the cards and it is up to them to take the plunge to affect change. Ingham explains: “Wine doesn’t lead, it waits. It waits for the retailers to tell them what they want, and then it responds, It’s such a shame that getting a supermarket listing is the bottleneck to innovation and change”. When asked what it would take to really shift the dial and progress things, Ingham simply states: “The answer is just to get on with it.”
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