Environment

Plastic bottles aim to remold wine industry

by Barbara Mathieson | August 8, 2009 at 04:33 am

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Glass takes a long time to break down, but plastic is forever. In reading this article about wine being sold in plastic bottles, the only environmental savings is that wine in plastic bottles will be more energy efficient to ship. Plus there will be screw-on lids, so no more hard plastic plugs.

By Jerry Hirsch
August 8, 2009 How about a bottle of the '02 Chateau Plastique?

The ubiquitous 750-milliliter glass wine bottle is starting to get competition from a plastic upstart, both on retail shelves and at a few restaurants.

The bottles carry a "use by" date -- plastic doesn't provide quite the same seal as glass -- and as such aren't likely to find their way into the cellars of serious wine enthusiasts.

For those who aren't as picky, however, the wine is likely to cost less. And oenophiles say that for wine that hasn't, err, expired, the taste will be the same.

"The wine doesn't know what package it is in," said W.R. Tish, a wine educator who writes a blog called Wine Skewer. "It tastes the same whether it is in a plastic bottle, a plastic bladder inside a box, or a glass."