Ever notice how heavy a wine bottle weighs? Heavier wine bottles means more energy to transport since most wines are imported. Here are some ways to lighten up the environmental impact of your favorite wine.
Alternative packaging
Choosing a wine that weighs less or using alternative packaging such as plastic will help reduce the carbon footprint in consuming wine. Plastic containers won’t change the taste of Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot, which both have tested well in blind wine tasting competitions. You can also look for boxed wines, which despite their reputation, actually keep young wines tasting fresher, and replace four bottles with one easily recyclable cardboard box.
Choose a reduced weight glass bottle
A beer bottle today is 30 percent lighter than it was 20 years ago, and Coca-Cola’s 2007Ultra bottleis 40 percent stronger but 20 percent lighter than in the past.
Although the wine industry hasn’t caught on the motion to reduce their bottle weight, it’s time for consumers to make that request.
The biggest weight reduction in the bottle would be the base, which helps with aging sediment. However, if you’re not aging your wine that feature wouldn’t be necessary.
Bottle Your Own Wine
Thanks to an increase in winemaking facilities, you don’t need a vineyard or centuries of experience to bottle your own great-tasting wines. Most allow you to choose from a large selection of red and white grape concentrates to produce wines like Australian Shiraz to Sauvignon Blanc and Italian Amarone that normally sell for about $30 a bottle at the liquor store. Making your own wine reduces this cost to between $3.50 to $5 per 750 ml bottle. Although you’ll have to supply or purchase the glass bottles initially, they can be used over and over again every time you make a new batch of wine.
What’s your favorite kind of wine? How do you reduce the environmental impact of the packaging?
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