News

G H Mumm, the champagne house owned by French group Pernod Ricard, has completed a trial production run of 2.5m lightweight champagne bottles.

The bottles involved in the trial weigh 835g, some 65g less than the standard bottle.

The project is a collective initiative at the request of the Comité Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne (CIVC), the French trade association that represents grape growers and champagne producers.

CIVC communications director Daniel Lorson told Packaging News that the aim of the lightweighting exercise is to reduce energy, cut carbon emissions and lower transportation costs.

The bottles for the Mumm trial have been supplied by French glass manufacturer Saint-Gobain.

Lorson said the bottles were tested during the second fermentation to see how they reacted to the pressure required to add the sparkle to the Champagne.

Mumm cannot sell its bottles to consumers until they are approved by the CIVC, which must receive assurances that they will not explode.

"We need to know if the bottles can fit on all our lines, including corking and adding the wires, and then we also need a response from consumers," said Lorson.

The trial bottles must now be aged for at least two-and-a-half years.

If the trial proves successful, CIVC may recommend its other members adopt the lighter bottles.

"I think it’s likely to happen, but champagne is the celebration wine and its symbolism, value and packaging are all part of its image," said Lorson.

"It’s important that we make sure the public is ready to accept it."

Pommery, owned by Vranken-Pommery Monopole, is the only big champagne group to use 835g instead of the standard 900g bottles.

It adopted them in 2003 and said it can load 4,000 more bottles on every truck.

It is estimated that if every champagne house switched, there would be 3,000 fewer trucks on the roads each year.