In the face of news such as a 14 percent decline in the value of Australian wine exports for the year ending April 2009, it’s important to consider any factor that might tilt the balance of trade back in a more favourable direction. One such factor was the recent launch of a new lightweight range of quality wine glass bottles produced by global glass container giant O-I at its Adelaide plant. Using newly developed ‘narrow neck press and blow’ technology, O-I has commenced making lightweight wine bottles in conventional bottle shapes. In other words, for the first time, Australian wine producers can respond to the emerging demands from (mainly European) markets to package its wine in lightweight bottles that are close to indistinguishable from ‘normal’ bottles despite being between 18-28% lighter. In itself, this should prove of great advantage when dealing with European supermarket chains, whose wine buyers are very focused on the carbon footprint of the wines they range. Uptake by the industry has been spontaneous, with Constellation Wines Australia adopting the bottles for its Banrock Station brand. Reports suggest that Pernod Ricard Pacific is investigating using the bottles for all its wines, including Jacob’s Creek. Incidentally, Australian wine sales are still growing in our regional markets of Hong Kong, China and Japan. With an increase in sales of $30 million, China recorded the largest growth in value.
