Plastic to save the environment? I'm confused. The latest salvo in the battle to make wine greener comes from British store Sainsbury's which has announced they
will be introducing wine in plastic bottles next month. They say the lightweight and recyclable bottles are more environmentally friendly and that they will not break if they fall on the floor. The wine bottles will look just like the traditional glaas bottles. They will sell two of their own brand wines, a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and an Australian Shiraz plus two from Australian winemaker
Wolf Blass. It sounds suspicious to me, and also to Simon Berry, of wine merchant Berry Brothers & Rudd who mentioned that making the glass bottles thinner might be a better way to reduce carbon emissions. The traditional wine containment system of glass bottle and traditional cork seems like it is best for both aesthetic and environmental purposes as long as the glass is recycled.
We've been seeing more and more wine companies considering plastic wine bottles as a greener alternative to glass. The bottles are lighter and 100 percent recyclable. One Australian producer, Wolf Blass creates a line called "Green Label" that uses these lighter bottles. But a new study which was commissioned by the plastic bottle manufacturer Portavin shows that while the bottles might be better for the environment they are not so good for wine over the long haul. While wine stored in plastic or glass taste similar at first, after eight to 12 months the taste changes. The PET bottles let air in, oxidizing the wine. The cheaper, lighter bottles should be used for more inexpensive wine which will be consumed quickly.
