Design

A shortage of clear glass bottles has forced Waitrose to roll out a half-litre bottle of rosé wine in green glass.

Rosé wine usually comes in clear bottles, but a Waitrose spokeswoman said that its supplier had been unable to find sufficient stocks to be able to reach shelves for the launch today (3 March) of its Vin a Deux range of French wines.

Waitrose expects, however, to have the wine in clear bottles on its shelves by May. The other seven wines in the range, reds and whites, would be bottled in green by default.

The Vin a Deux wines are bottled in France and sent to the UK.

Philip Tutt, a spokesman for O-I Glass, said there was "no problem for clear glass in the UK", but admitted that, as in the rest of the packaging industry, "glass prices had risen to reflect increased energy prices".

Waitrose said it had introduced the range of wines in 50cl bottles to "cater for responsible drinking habits".

Wine buyer Nick Room said the bottle would "dispense with unfinished bottles of wine or 'feeling the need' to finish off a full bottle".

In 2007, retailers introduced a number of new formats for wine packaging, including PET bottles and multi-layer pouches.