DAN'S WINE BLOG- PACKAGING DEVELOPMENTS

PACKAGING DEVELOPMENTS

?

Friday, October 20, 2023

?

Step by Step or inch by inch (for the old Imperial guard), the laws and rules on wine, around the world are tightening up so as to bring our beloved beverage into the realms of the 21st century consumer land.

?The “good old days” of just bottling up your wine, whacking an importer sticker on the back label and shipping it off around the world are gone.

?This week we are starting off in California which has legislated that as from January 1, 2024 (as they write it), all wine containers must be recyclable and will be subject to deposit legislation in the same way that soft drinks already are. The system is pretty straight forward, except if you happen to be a winery in any one of the other 49 States which sells DTC (Direct to Consumer) to people in California – then it gets a bit messier, as a winery must pre-register to the system, so no spur of the moment sales to Californians.

?While many question the bureaucracy of the system, which in theory costs the consumer rather than those in the sales system, there can be no denying its effectiveness. The State of Oregon closely monitors its recycling rates (which to date does not include wine bottles) and their recycle rate is 85% compared to the US national average of 36%.

?Next we pop over to Europe which as has been already reported, as from January 1, 2024, all wine sold in the EU will need to have a QR code that links to both ingredient and nutritional information on that wine. The nutritional information will look very similar to that which we already see on most of our food. Added to this, in Germany, there are significant trials being conducted with re-fillable wine bottle, while in Sweden over 25% of all wine sold is already in casks (Bag in Box) mostly of 1.0L capacity, with some in 2.0L casks.

??Around the world, little by little, wine packaging is moving away from the traditional wine bottle and especially those insanely heavy, chunky bottles that people used to use to leverage sales to China. This change is being driven not only by environmental considerations, but also by the fact that wine sales in China, especially of imported wines, have collapsed and are now only around 50% of what they were at their pre-pandemic peak.

?Lightweight bottles while still carbon heavy to produce, do lower the footprint of wine in its transport stage. As a step along the way, the first “lightweight” champagne bottles have recently been released.

?A number of significant wine producers around the world are looking at or have already committed to using lightweight wine bottles. This is probably being done in anticipation of several countries in Europe (mainly Scandinavian) considering introducing legislation on the subject. Added to this is the development of both paper bottles and the outstanding #Packamama slimline, recycled plastic bottles, as reported previously.

?What is clear is that one way or another, over the next few years/by the end of the decade, our wine “bottles” are going to look rather different to what we are currently accustomed to. It will be interesting to see and watch the developments as they occur.

?Have a great week, #chooseaustralianwine and when possible try #emergingvarieties

?Cheers, Dan T.