The drinks industry is slowly embracing sustainability and making strides to reduce its carbon footprint. Single-use glass bottles and their transportation make up 39% of the overall wine industry’s carbon emissions.
An Ipswich-based company, Frugalpac, reckon they have come up with the answer – the Frugal Bottle, which is made from 94% recycled paper and has a carbon footprint that is just a sixth of a single-use bottle. To counter concerns that a soggy paper bottle will cause its contents to leak, it has a recyclable plastic pouch inside. Whether the wine will taste the same as when it is poured out of a dark-green glass bottle is a matter for the drinker to decide.
The first vintner to embrace the paper bottle, although trying not to squeeze it too hard, is alt-format specialist, When in Rome. They have a trio of wines, their Peccorino IGP Terre di Chieti and Rosato, produced by a grower in Aruzzo, and their Primitivo IGP Puglia, produced by Tenuta Viglione, available in the new format through Ocado.
Sir Kenelm Digby will doubtless be amused that it has taken nigh on four centuries to come up with an eco-friendly alternative to his revolutionary glass wine bottle. Let’s see whether it catches on.
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