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Packamama, the packaging firm behind the distinctive flat plastic bottles stocked by retailers like The Wine Society, is switching to a new eco-friendly material called polyethylene furanoate (PEF). The company claims this newly patented material outperforms traditional recycled PET plastic, marking an industry first for wine packaging.
The wine industry is increasingly turning to lightweight bottles as producers seek to reduce their environmental footprint and operational costs. These bottles use less glass and energy to produce while maintaining quality, making them an attractive option for wineries looking to improve sustainability credentials. It's a practical example of how the industry is adapting to meet both consumer expectations and commercial pressures.
The Drinks Business explores how empowering workers to drive sustainability initiatives is actually getting results across the wine sector. They chat with folks like Champagne Canard-Duchêne and Lanchester Group about how genuine, sincere environmental programmes resonate better with staff and how one UK bottling warehouse hit 92% recycling rates when their team felt they had real ownership of the goals.
Tom Bruce-Gardyne's piece in The Drinks Business highlights something that's getting lost in all the sustainability talk: growers actually need to make money. It's a fair point - English wine producers and estates across Europe are investing heavily in organic certification and better farming practices, but the market hasn't caught up, so the premiums have basically disappeared. The piece features voices from Greyfriars in Surrey and the Sustainable Wine Roundtable, all pointing out that environmental and social sustainability mean zilch if producers can't stay afloat financially.
Santorini's wine industry is facing what Decanter's calling an extinction-level crisis – vineyard acreage has collapsed from 3,000-4,000 hectares to just 1,000 over recent decades, with climate change and tourism development now squeezing what's left. The island's famous Assyrtiko is being pushed out by drought, heat, and developers converting vineyards into hotels and villas, forcing harvests earlier each year and production to record lows. It's a cautionary tale about what happens when a historic wine region gets caught between climate stress and tourism pressure.
Galicia's wine region got absolutely hammered by wildfires last August – the worst in years – with producers like Trasdovento losing entire vineyard blocks and others having to abandon harvests. The real issue is that climate change is making a traditionally wet region dangerously hot and dry in summer, and rural depopulation means less managed land to act as firebreaks, so it's looking like a growing headache for Spanish winemakers going forward.
The Buyer dives into regenerative viticulture and why winemakers should be talking more about soil health as part of their story. It's a solid piece on how soil management practices are becoming a key differentiator for producers across the UK and EU who want to appeal to increasingly conscious consumers.
A devastating landslide has destroyed Borgo del Tiglio, a respected family winery in Friuli, Italy, killing two people and burying much of the estate under mud and debris. The disaster—triggered by over 300mm of rain in just a few hours—has sparked conversations about climate resilience in the wine industry, with the winery's owner using the tragedy to highlight how extreme weather will increasingly affect small traditional producers across Europe.
UK in-market bottlers are seeing a real surge in demand for bulk wine shipments, with sustainability benefits that're hard to ignore. Kingsland Drinks reckons they're moving nearly 72% more wine per container when it comes in bulk rather than bottled, plus they're keeping the glass manufacturing local to Manchester—which cuts down massively on transport emissions. It's becoming the default approach for long-haul exports now, and retailers are actively pushing for it.
German vineyards are installing solar panels as a climate adaptation strategy, which is a pretty clever solution to killing two birds with one stone. DW's reporting on how the wine industry is tackling environmental challenges through renewable energy is definitely worth covering—it shows how European producers are getting innovative with sustainability rather than just talking about it.
Here's a solid data-driven breakdown comparing beer and wine's carbon footprints across production—turns out the sustainability story's more nuanced than you'd think. The piece digs into energy use and CO₂ recovery during fermentation, which matters given how much pressure wine producers are facing to clean up their act. Worth a read if you're tracking where the industry's heading on environmental credentials.