Ontario sets maximum bottle weight limit

We at HNG Global GMBH, Germany are developing a 750 ml Flint Bordeaux bottle at 400 gms weight specifically for the Canadian market. Anyone interested can send email to devdutta@hngil.com

I can’t caution enough how important it is to make sure you aren’t buying a cheap wine in an expensive bottle. It seems like more and more wine manufactures are using new regulations to make a wine seem like a better value than it is.

This is a good move, but I'd like to see more specific guidelines for the 'premium' wines too. While the vast majority of the volume will be at the lower price points, which will have the greater effect in reducing carbon footprint, the bottle distinction will add to the tiering withing the selection. The premium guys will hang onto their heavy bottles as it is now even more specifically setting them apart as 'top end'.

And just how many wines below the (KGBO set after all) price of $15 currently weigh more I wonder. Ill be sure to look now but not that there`s too much under that price anyway. Publicity stunt, nothing more nothing less - but with a price caveat. Perhaps its really about their transport costs v profit - over 15 bucks equals more offsetting profit?

Champagne- get it. Pewter laden Cava bottle, not so.

Well, good luck Ontario. You will be left purchasing wines in plastic for the most part. Nice strategy... for the undereducated in glass, the average bottle is 500+ grams excluding wine imporation from most of the rest of the world. Good luck.

Well said Paul — PET and Tetra are a disaster in a recycling sense since PET collection far exceeds the demand for this form of used material and Tetra lacks sufficient recycling facility within Canada let alone Ontario to actual process the recycled Tetra. The dirty little secret to Tetra is that though municipalities may collect it within the blue box, it has then no where to go but landfill since the processing of this material is too energy and process intensive to make it a viable material source in the product afterlife. Consequently there are no processing facilities within a reasonable transportation range and as such the Tetra goes from your blue box to landfill... It’s been estimated that less than 13% of Tetra is actually recycled in North America. Bottles on the other hand, especially clear flint, are highly recyclable and attractive as recovered materials with many second life uses.

Here in Ontario, we love to bash what wine writer Konrad Ejbich has termed the "KGBO" [LCBO], but this seems a reasonable and balanced decision. By allowing for the necessary weight of sparkling wine bottles, as well as the sometimes pretentious mass favoured by "premium" producers, and allowing time for compliance, tonnes of carbon from manufacturing and transporting bottles can be eliminated. Let's hope that we can all place more focus on the contents rather than the packages. An added bonus is that this move may indicate that the LCBO will stop promoting PET and Tetra containers.