The next time you buy your favorite bottle of wine at the store, if it seems lighter, it probably isn’t another instance of “shrinkflation.”
In an effort to lower its carbon impact, The Co-op is introducing wine bottles made of thinner glass.
After a trial allayed concerns that the new, lighter bottles may shatter more readily, two of its best-selling Chilean wines are now offered in them.
With only those wines, the Co-op will reduce carbon emissions by 1,000 tons annually throughout the 850,000 bottles sold, which is the same as removing 215 automobiles off the road.
The change, which is equivalent to more than 200,000 automobiles, would save nearly one million tons of carbon if it were extensively implemented across the UK.
Bosses acknowledge that they will need to inform customers that they are receiving the same amount and quality of wine.
Customers connect quality with heft—how weighty and solid something feels—for many things, but wine in particular, according to Lou Ellerton of branding specialists Kantar. Therefore, it will be necessary to inform them that the product inside is the same.
The second issue is that some customers may pick up the new lighter bottles and question whether there is less inside after years of shrinkflation. However, most individuals are aware that a bottle is 750 ml and can tell by quickly scanning it.
With glass bottle manufacture making nearly 30% of the carbon footprint, it is the single largest source of emissions in the wine supply chain. Additionally, lighter bottles will reduce the pollutants produced by shipping wine throughout the globe.
The Irresistible Chilean Pinot Noir bottle weight from Co-op is down 31% to 400g, while the Irresistible Malbec bottle weight is down 16% to 475g.
Sarah Benson, the wine buyer for the Co-op, said that it took 12 months to perfect after experimenting with various bottle thinning techniques.
We kept in mind that many of our consumers prefer heavier bottles in premium wines throughout the whole procedure.