Bottles on steroids

Go to any Portuguese ‘garrafeira’ (bottleshop) with a broad selection of Portuguese wines, and it is obvious to see that Portuguese wineries have eagerly imitated the worldwide trend in turning to bigger, taller and heavier bottles in an attempt to meet consumers´perceptions of high-end wines. “Consumers perceive the wine as better if the bottle is on steroids.” – Evan Goldstein, of Allied Domecq Wines.

In bucking this trend, we have switched most of our wines to lighter weight bottles during the past years, in order to reduce energy use in production and transport, and our overall carbon emissions.

The bottles we now use for the main core of our wines (Chaminé and Cortes de Cima), weigh 430gr, compared to earlier bottles, which weighed a minimum of 550 gr. to a max. of 610 gr. With an average savings of 160 gr. per bottle, there is a 10% reduction of the total net bottle weight (1.16kg). At 1.500.000 bottles per year, that equals an annual savings of 210 tonnes of glass!

Furthermore, our bottles are manufactured locally, to minimize the energy requirement of shipping empty bottles to the winery. Unfortunately, the lighter bottles cost more than the heavier bottles did, due to rises in the price of raw materials, and a high demand and limited supply of the newer more environmentally friendly design.

Both Chaminé tinto and Chaminé branco from the 2007 vintage, launched from the winery earlier this year, use the newest lightweight (430 g) bottle. Cortes de Cima 2006, which will be bottled this month, will also be using this energy saving bottle.

And please don’t forget to recycle your empty bottle!

From -www.wasteonline.org.uk -

The manufacture of glass uses energy in the extraction and transportation of the raw materials, and during processing as materials have to be heated together to a very high temperature….

Glass can be recycled indefinitely as part of a simple but hugely beneficial process, as its structure does not deteriorate when reprocessed. In the case of bottles and jars, up to 80% of the total mixture can be made from reclaimed scrap glass, called “cullet”…. If recycled glass is used to make new bottles and jars, the energy needed in the furnace is greatly reduced. After accounting for the transport and processing needed, 315kg of CO2 is saved per tonne of glass melted.