Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/45785
END POST Message in a Bottle: Lighten Up ive years ago, in the pre-reces- sionary era, pricey wines often came in bottles so heavy that they could double as barbells. Even some not -so-expensive wines came in biceps-bui lder bottles in a bid to seem more, er, weighty than their fermented juice might show on the palate. Given the additional fuel it takes to trans- port heavy bottles to the consumer, one day we may look back at this period as gas-guzzling folly on par with the Hummer. Now that the fuel-sipping Prius prevails, it's time to ask if your bottles should also be slimming down. And the answer is an unequivocal yes. Frankly, the wine industry has been heading the wrong direction on bottle weights. Beer bottles have shed 30% of their weight over the past two decades. Soda and bottled water producers have shifted to stronger bottles that are lighter. Yet vintners bulked up their bottles in a misguided attempt to justify a higher price. Fortunately, things are changing. Two green reasons drive the change: money and environmental awareness. First, the economics are clear as lighter bottles cost less to buy and they cost less to trans- port. Consider that a case of heavy, 30-ounce bottles might cost $16 a case to purchase from a glass man- ufacturer, while midweight bottles (23 ounces) might only cost about $10. Multiply that difference by the number of cases you produce and it's likely a considerable savings that could equal better margins or pay for another staff position. Drop the bottle weight further to 16 ounces and the price falls to approximately $7 a case. Once those bottles are filled, 106 VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT NOV - DEC 2011 shipping them is less costly, too, since more of them can fit in a truck. Even if the winery's business model is to ship directly to con- sumers, the reduced bottle mass can make FedEx and UPS ship- ments less expensive to the tune of $5-$10 per box. Environmental awareness is the other green reason to switch to lighter bottles. In a paper that I co-authored about the carbon footprint of wine, we found that there are two main ways to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of wine: choose a less-emitting form of transportation (such as ships instead of airplanes) and light- weight the packaging. Given that more than 90% of American wine is produced on the West Coast and two-thirds of the population lives east of the Mississippi, truck- ing may be hard to pass up. That should make lightweight bottles all the more appealing and essential. In our study, we found that for a winery located in Northern Califor- nia making a wine to be consumed in the area, the bottle manufacture and transportation of empty bottles accounted for more than half of the wine's carbon dioxide emissions – including growing the grapes and making the wine. Holding every- thing else constant on the bottle consumed locally, dropping from a 30-ounce bottle to a 14-ounce bot- tle would reduce the carbon emis- sions by 30%. Further, environmental concern resonates with consumers, particu- larly younger ones. Waste is out, recycling is in. In case these carrots have not enticed you, the Canadian province of Ontario has just brought out a big stick. The Liquor Control Board WWW.VWM-ONLINE.COM TYLER COLMAN Tyler Colman, author of the wine blog Dr. Vino, teaches wine classes at New York Uni- versity and the University of Chicago, and wrote the book "Wine Politics: How Gov- ernments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink." of Ontario, the monopoly retailer in the province of 13 million peo- ple, has mandated that, starting in 2013, all bottles must be ultralight, weighing 420g (14.8 ounces) or less. Granted, this new rule applies to bottles priced on the shelf at $15 or under, so it is not likely to ensnare the weightiest offenders. But it is a lowering of the boom that is better heeded than ignored. In the United States, recycling rates for wine bottles are astonish- ingly low: A recent Environmental Protection Agency report put the figure at 15%. However, increas- ing the amount of recycled material in the glass you buy is also a way to reduce the bottle's carbon foot- print, since it introduces a closed loop, bypassing the need for raw materials that virgin glass requires. The best way to reduce the car- bon footprint of the bottle is sim- ply to reuse it. A newish company called Wine Bottle Renew in Stock- ton, Calif., says it can clean 5,000 cases worth of wine bottles a day. Clearly that's not an industry-wide solution at this point, yet is cer- tainly a way to put a green foot for- ward. So scrap the big bottles. Con- sumers won't miss the workout. In fact, they will thank you when they take out the recycling bin. (Opinions expressed in this col- umn do not necessarily reflect those of Vineyard & Winery Man- agement.) Comments? Please e-mail us at feedback@vwm-online.com.