Tesco will be the first retailer to move its entry level wines to the lighter bottle. Other major retailers including Asda and brand owners have registered their interest.
Nicola Jenkin, drinks category manager for the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which launched the initiative, told decanter.com, 'Lighter bottles have been technically viable but the wine community didn't want to use them because they didn't look right. We've worked really hard at the design – it had to be a bottle producers wanted to use.
'We believe this is the first screwcap bottle in the world at 300g,' she added.
The Bordeaux-shaped bottle is aimed at large volume brands bottling their wines in the UK. According to WRAP, more than 200m litres of wine are shipped in bulk and bottled in the UK.
The average weight of a wine bottle in the UK is around 500g.
Have your say... To post your comment on this story, email us at news@decanter.com, making sure the relevant headline is in the subject field
We have been shipping to Canada and it also has been available from Spain to the UK a 390 gram 1 litre screw cap. This is an equivalent of a 290 gram 75cl. Carbon footprint much smaller than 75cl 300 gram, especially in shipping.
Paul Wakefield, Besos(UK) Ltd
I hate to be pedantic here - or to get into a Dutch auction - but the 300g Kingland bottle is actually the lightest glass screwcap bottle. Our Greener Planet Sustainable wine (going into All Bar One restaurants next month) comes in screwcap litre PET bottles that weigh just 54g. But all moves to lighter packaging of any kind for entry level wines are definitely to be welcomed.
Robert Joseph, London
Register on decanter.com absolutely free for news alerts delivered direct to your email inbox, and our fortnightly newsletter with advance notice of what’s coming up in Decanter magazine, offers, competitions and more.
PLUS registration is a one-stop shop for the Decanter magazine Archive and Decanter Fine Wine Tracker.
