Packs and Closures

A swimming pool might not be the most obvious place to look for inspiration for a new packaging format for wine, but René Hendriks did just that. Working in five-star hotels, he witnessed the problems glass bottles can cause and decided to do something about it. In May last year, he launched Think Wines, a range of Portuguese wine sold exclusively in aluminium bottles.

His product is just one of many challengers to the dominant position of glass in the wine sector, although glass still holds a 90% share (see graph). The Think Wines range comes in 250ml and 750ml screw-cap bottles, which have the advantage of being shatter proof – solving Hendriks’ swimming pool problem.

There are also aesthetic reasons. The aluminium can be printed on directly, enabling branding around the whole bottle. This means there is no need for paper labels, which can start to peel off if left in an ice bucket for a long time.

Aluminium also cools five times faster than glass, making the wine perfect for barbecues and parties, says Hendriks. The bottles will also protect the wine from UV light, which Think Wines has highlighted by painting the bottles with ink that becomes fluorescent under UV lights in a nightclub.

However, Hendriks adds that environmental considerations are also a big factor. The aluminium bottles are lighter than glass, reducing the carbon cost of transporting the wine, he explains. Aluminium can also be recycled endlessly without degrading. The Think Wines range is not yet available in the UK, although Hendriks is in talks with UK distributors.

Rexam launched its Fusion aluminium bottle in November last year. It is being piloted in a 330ml size, but breakthrough innovations manager Steve Howell says other sizes and shapes are on the drawing board. The 330ml bottle weighs just 23g, against 250-300g for a comparable glass bottle.

When you hold the chilled bottle there is a serious wow factor, says Howell. It also answers social concerns about the dangers of combining alcohol and anti-social behaviour with glass. Fears over excessive alcohol consumption have also brought serving sizes to the fore and Rexam is investigating a 250ml Fusion bottle, equivalent to one large glass.

Consumers like to be able to control their consumption, says Howell. For this reason, Rexam is also putting wine into ringpull cans. There has been an explosion of interest in wine in cans over the past couple of years, says Howell. In 2006, Rexam sold six million cans of wine in Europe, but this jumped to 35 million a year later.

Metal message
Prosecco is the most popular wine to be packaged in a can. Howell believes this is partly because people do not want to open a whole bottle of sparkling wine in case it goes flat. Last year, Paris Hilton, wearing nothing but gold body paint, fronted an advertising campaign for Rich Prosecco in a can in Germany, the largest market for canned wine. The can has the same weight advantages as the aluminium bottle, but suffers from an image perception, with many growers and consumers unconvinced.

Wolf Blass has attempted to bridge the gap in perception by putting two of its Green Label wines into PET bottles that look like glass wine bottles. Sainsbury’s trialled two of its own-brand wines in glass lookalike PET last summer, but will not produce them this year.

Design Bridge’s head of 3D branding and packaging, Nick Verebelyi, believes that PET bottles can leave customers feeling disappointed: It isn’t hard or cold to the touch and looks smaller. He argues that brands should make a feature of the material, rather than trying to disguise it. He gives the example of US brand Yellow Jersey, which has the shape of the jersey on the label embossed all over the surface of the bottle.

Wolf Blass introduced PET bottles for convenience and environmental reasons, stating that the bottles reduce waste and carbon emitted during transport. The Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap) published a report on the carbon impact of bottling Australian wine in the UK in March, comparing glass and PET bottles. The report measured the overall carbon footprint of bulk importing the wine from Australia and bottling and transporting it in the UK.

It found that a standard glass wine bottle had the highest carbon footprint, at 578g, while a lightweight glass bottle and a PET bottle were similar, at 493g and 474g respectively. However, when Wrap compared a specific 356g glass bottle, manufactured in the UK by Quinn Glass using 92% recycled content, its carbon footprint was significantly lower at 379g of CO2.

The PET bottle used in the report weighs 54g and is made in the UK by Amcor. This was compared to a standard 496g glass bottle and a lightweight 365g glass bottle – both made in Europe with 81% recycled content, which is the average for a green glass bottle manufactured in Europe.

The PET bottle emits 222g of CO2 in manufacture, while a 496g glass bottle emits 293g and a 365g glass bottle produces 216g of CO2. The PET bottle included no recycled material, reflecting the market. PET can be recycled, although, as with most plastics, it degrades and cannot be recycled infinitely. The economic and technological feasibility of recycling PET back into food-grade PET in the UK is challenging and most PET bottles are recycled into fibre or shipped to Asia for recycling.

Competitive cartons
Tetra Pak is another format keen to promote itself as a lightweight option for wine packaging. A 750ml carton weighs 33.3g and because of its shape can be packed together more tightly, saving space during transit. Andrew Peace became the first brand to launch a wine in a Tetra Pak in the UK, last year. Following its success, French Connection unveiled two of its wines in one-litre Tetra Paks, in February this year.

As with the can and aluminium bottle, the whole surface of a carton can be printed. The amount of space means we can push the environmental message, to make sure consumers are aware and can find out where facilities exist to recycle them, says a spokeswoman for Bottle Green, the UK agent and importer for both Andrew Peace and French Connection.

US brand French Rabbit is packed exclusively in Tetra Paks and it has introduced a 250ml size. The cartons are sealed with a pull tab, as there is no need for them to be resealable at that size. Tetra Pak product manager Ian Williamson believes a straw would give the wrong message and could be seen as encouraging young people to drink. However, French brand Tandem is available in a 250ml Tetra Pak with a straw.

The French Connection wines have an image of a wine glass on the carton, to ensure consumers are clear about the contents. A similar approach is taken by Arniston Bay on its wine pouches, which feature a picture of a traditional glass bottle. It was launched at the London International Wine Fair last year, and brand manager Felicity Billington says the response from retailers has been very positive. The pouch is easy to handle, lighter and quicker to chill than glass, she says. Initially produced in a 1.5-litre pack, a 250ml pouch was introduced at this year’s fair.

Arniston Bay is working with Palandri Wines in Australia and its UK distributor, Ehrmanns, on ‘Project Verde’ to encourage the use of pouches for wines. The 1.5-litre pouch with tap weighs 38g. A Pira lifecycle analysis (LCA) found that even though the pouches cannot be recycled, their carbon footprint is still 80% lower than two glass bottles. The pouches also occupy 90% less landfill than the glass equivalent. Pira concluded that even if 100% of glass wine bottles were recycled, the pouch would still be more environmentally beneficial as saving materials is a bigger environmental win than recycling.

owever, these new formats still only account for 0.5% of the wine sold in the UK. As the environmental trend gathers pace, these and other new formats are likely to grow in popularity – although they have some way to go yet.

GLASS REFLECTS NEW TRENDS

Even wines in glass bottles have had a bit of a refresh, with many brands moving away from traditional images of crests and vineyards on the labels.

Design agency Dare!, which specialises in wine labels, created an image of a cat sat on an egg for the humorously named Chat-en-Oeuf wine. With more wine displayed in rows behind bars, you want your wine to stand out so people point at it and say ‘I want that one’, says Dare! partner Simon Tame.

He acknowledges this approach is not suitable for all brands. The agency designed the branding for Croft Pink Port, launched in April, which required a more traditional look to establish the new product’s credentials.

Design Bridge’s Verebelyi argues that there may be a backlash against what he calls ‘critter brands’ that use an image of something bright and eye-catching simply to turn heads. Brands that want to express the wine’s depth of craft and quality will use classical cues. Chateaux d’Esclans was given an august image by Design Bridge and was the only rosé wine drunk by the Queen at her garden party last year.

Verebelyi says marketers are waking up to the idea of targeting wines at women. Design Bridge styled the labels of Melbourne Lounge wine to look like flocked wallpaper. He adds: Women are less interested in the nerdy aspects of wine; they want something that tastes good and looks right when they give it to their friends.