16 May 2009 — The Wine Industry Association of Western Australia doesn’t think moving from glass to plastic bottles for wine is necessarily a bad idea. I don’t know about you, but it would make me not want to drink the wine.
And it appears the Southern Australian wine maker Wolf Blass has already begun to offer some of it’s wines in polyethylene terepthalate (PET) bottles. The main claimed justification is environmental: i.e., that the plastic bottles create 29% less greenhouse gas emissions and are much lighter. There does not appear to be any mention of the move to plastic bottles being significantly cheaper for the winemaker. Greenwashing? Perhaps it was inevitable in this often bottom-line, convenience-driven world we live in, but the thought of vino sitting and aging in plastic just does not seem right. The company says the wines being packaged in these bottles are not intended for cellaring, but to be consumed within 48 hours. So what happens after 48 hours? And for those who do go ahead and cellar it unknowingly, should they expect it to taste better after 10 years of being surrounded by PET? It’ll certainly be more potent.
– Jay