DAN’S WINE BLOG

2024-06-27

Amid all the Doom & Gloom abounding in the wine industry these days, some cheery news this week. Kicking off with lightening the load!

PLASTIC FANTASTIC

European plastics company ALPLA has announced the launch of a new recyclable wine bottle made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Their new bottle is said to cut the carbon footprint by up to 50%- depending on the weight of the glass bottle previously used, as well as providing the winery with significant cost savings.

The initial 750 ml version is being used by Austrian Winery Wegenstein as the pilot & test program. The bottle weighs 50 grams, which is around 300 grams less than the glass bottle they were using before, thereby making a 6 pack nearly two kilos lighter than normal. Furthermore, as the PET bottles are smaller in diameter due to their thinner walls, more bottles can be placed on re-configured pallets. This reduces the carbon footprint even further through the transport process. This is but another step in the process of making “everyday” (non-super premium/cellar for ages) wines more socially responsible in our battle against global warming and the potential demise of many a premium grape growing area around the world

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As I have reported before, a significant positive step has been taken by Packamama, who have created a light weight 100% recycled PET bottle, BUT have re-designed the traditional bottle shape so that it is oval and slim lined. This means that not only is it super light in weight, but also due to its design they can fit 10 bottles into a conventional six pack and it will still weigh significantly less than a standard glass 6 pack. Whilst a growing number of wine producers are opting for “lightweight” glass bottles, they only save around 10% of the weight of a “normal” bottle, which is a positive but miniscule step in the right direction which pales into insignificance in comparison to the environmental benefits of recycled PET bottles, be the conventionally shaped or slim-lined

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So far the revolutionary Packamama slim-line packaging has been adopted by Aldi UK and in Australia by Tamburlaine Organic Wines, Taylors Wines and Banrock Station- with many more to follow- I’m sure, as it is such a sensible, environmentally friendly product.

I’LL DRINK TO THAT

Recently the Global “Star Wine List of the Year” winners were announced across ten categories, with Australia winning three of these: The overall winner was De Nieuwe Winkel, Nijmegen, Netherlands

Australia’s Gold Star winners were:

Best medium sized wine list- Mother Vine-Adelaide

Best by the Glass List- Ten Minutes by Tractor Main Ridge Victoria

Best Newcomer List- Enoteca Boccaccio Melbourne

Not a bad effort for the ‘Lil-ole’ Antipodes huh??

Well on that cheery note I’ll say ciao for another week.

Have a great week and remember to always #chooseaustralianwine and when possible enjoy #emergingvarietiesCheersDan T

STOP PRESS!!

A mere two months after the punitive tax was lifted, Australian wine has risen to become the 2nd most imported wine into China!! Hopefully heading back up to the #1 position it occupied in the pre-tax days!

OUTSTANDING !!