Lighter wine bottles have a lower carbon footprint and have no bearing on the quality of the wine.
Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Have you noticed wine bottles getting lighter? A slimmer profile, a smaller punt (the indentation in the bottom)? Fewer bottles requiring two hands to pour securely? Those behemoths weighing as much as a kilogram when empty are not yet extinct, but they may be close to endangered. More and more wineries are shifting to bottles under 600 grams, even closer to 500 and as low as 380 grams. This is great news, and not just for our backs and our wrists. It's good for our planet. Wineries that persist in using heavier glass continue to blame us — consumers — for believing a heavy bottle signals a better wine. We should disabuse them of their belief in our gullibility. These peacock bottles, strutting to catch our attention, won't work. Here's why bottle weight matters: Glass is extremely energy-intensive to manufacture. Glass bottles account for 29 percent of wine's carbon footprint — the single biggest factor — according to a study commissioned in 2011 by the Wine Institute in California. Transport is 13 percent, and bottle weight is a factor in that. Other studies, of varying areas and scope, put the combined contribution of glass to wine's carbon footprint closer to 50 percent. Advertisement Wineries are moving to lighter glass for a number of reasons. Certifications such as B Corp, Regenerative Organic and others require businesses (not just wineries) to measure their carbon footprint and take steps to reduce it. Many wine regions are encouraging or even requiring wineries to meet certain sustainability goals, including environmental stewardship. (About 80 percent of California wine is now made in a certified sustainable winery, according to the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance.) Climate-conscious groups such as International Wineries for Climate…