In the old days, when we had a restaurant, the cost and prestige of a wine went hand in hand with the bottle weight. One could practically tell from an empty bottle’s weight what its price point would have been.

These days are over.  As part of our move towards sustainability we have opted for a lighter bottle from 2006 vintage onwards. I have been researching and checking what’s available and we are now ready to place our first order.

Our new bottle weighs nearly 200 grams less than the last one. That’s nearly a third less.

There is no doubt that it still counts as a heavy bottle, weighing in at 550 gr… but this change will nevertheless reduce the carbon footprint of our wines significantly.

The “new” bottle is a Bordolese bottle.  The length of the bottle neck and height of the bottle is unaffected. As far as regards the protection and safekeeping of our wines during their long potential cellar aging and their safety during transit nothing has been compromised.

It is produced by the prestigious French firm, St.Gobain… but in their Italian factories (phew!) so we haven’t cancelled the positive effects of the light bottle by having to import from another country.

For more information regarding the business of light bottles, here are some great links:

http://www.drvino.com/2007/10/30/calculating-the-carbon-footprint-of-wine-my-research-findings/

http://www.wrap.org.uk/downloads/GlassRight_Wine_lightweighing_-_web_version.0ec074f9.5381.pdf

http://www.decanter.com/news/182202.html