Plastic takes on vintage glass; More winemakers adopt cheaper, lighter bottles for lower-cost offerings

By Jerry Hirsch, TRIBUNE NEWSPAPERS — Chicago Tribune, August 11, 2009 Tuesday Chicagoland Final Edition – News from LexisNexis via www.packagingdigest.com

Plastic containers already are commonly used for 187-milliliter single-serving wine bottles sold on commercial airlines and available at many supermarkets. But cost pressures are expected to accelerate the trend toward alternative materials in the packaging ofwine & spirits.

So how about a bottle of the ‘02 Chateau Plastique? The ubiquitous 750-milliliter glass wine bottle is starting to get competition from a plastic upstart.

The bottles carry a “use by” date — plastic doesn’t provide quite the same seal as glass — and as such aren’t likely to find their way into the cellars of serious wine enthusiasts.

For those who aren’t as picky, however, the wine is likely to cost less. And oenophiles say that for wine that hasn’t, er, expired, the taste will be the same.

Personally, I think that this will probably catch on quite quickly at the bottom-end of the market, where wine is getting consumed within days/weeks/months of manufacture and is already sold in a ‘bag-in-box format successfully. However,  at the top-end, where wine is traditionally ‘laid-down’ to improve quality & value, I don’t think that it will happen. Aside from the long-term barrier properties, the weight & ‘feel’ of a glass bottle have a much higher quality & value perception, with which plastic has always found it difficult to compete. Chris Penfold

Read the whole article here: Plastic takes on vintage glass; More winemakers adopt cheaper, lighter bottles for lower-cost offerings – August 11, 2009 Tuesday – Packaging Digest.

Tags: Branding, cost-optimisation, drink, food, trend

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