HE AIN'T HEAVY, HE'S MY WINE BOTTLE

Chile’s Santa Rita is the latest winery to jump on the eco bandwagon now that it has begun to use lighter glass bottles for its ‘120’ range of wines.

Their declared reason, of course, is to reduce their carbon footprint and excess garbage landfill (according to their pr release stats, glass bottles comprise almost 40% of all beverage packaging waste generated by the average household). However, the more compelling motivation for the winery is likely to be the fact that increases in the cost of energy have considerably raised the price of glass, not to mention the transport costs for bottles that are exported to international markets.

As of September 1st, Santa Rita started a weight reduction program starting with its ‘120’ series, but the company says it plans to have all varietals exported to Canada bottled in vessels containing up to 15% less glass. The winery claims the new packaging will have the same look and strength as their old bottles but will result in more than 860 tons of glass per year. Apparently this translates to a reduction of 4,555 tons of CO2 emissions a year -- or the equivalent of taking 1,440 cars off the street.

Santa Rita is not the first to make this commitment. Carmen, another wine from Chile, is already exporting their wine in lighter bottles, and big name companies such as Mumm Champagne are also looking into it. Barring no evidence of increase in shipping damage, it's a safe prediction that there will be many conversions to lighter bottles in 2009, especially for labels in the high volume, low-priced end of the export market.

You will soon be able to check and compare wine bottle-lite for yourself. An old bottle and a new, lighter bottle of Santa Rita will be displayed on electronic scales at the upcoming Chilean Wine Festival in Vancouver this fall on September 25th.