Plastic Wine Bottles are for Profit not the Environment!

After reading an article about a prominent Marlborough, New Zealand, winery that has started using plastic wine bottles for all of their wine I feel compelled to write this article in response.

"It is not going to suit everyone, but I think for the environmentally conscious person who loves a nice wine, it will work well" Said the owner.
Well I am environmentally conscious and am appalled at the concept. I believe the true reason behind the move, is not the environment, but the accountants and profit of the winery itself.
The winery in question, already being talked about industry wide for flooding the market and ruining the great Marlborough wine name, is said to be not without financial difficulties, but that is only hearsay!

The New Zealand wine industry is at a cross roads and the decision they make will have major implications for the next decade if not more. The choices are a) be known for quality wines that are environmentally sustainable b) make wine as a commodity and therefore our New Zealand brand will be damaged. Australia made their decision last decade and are now know for large bulk wine with relatively poor quality, and therefore the price that their wines command are very low. 

Currently Marlborough/New Zealand has a great reputation worldwide for quality wines, is this about to change?

I still think we can make and market our wines as fine wine across the international wine drinking community but it is harder to do when buffoons continue to find ways to destroy the great New Zealand image with screwcaps and now plastic bottles! 

The benefits of plastic containers over glass is that they weigh less and are less breakable. Recycling is even more important with plastic because plastic is made from oil, which is non-renewable. It is better to use old plastic to make new plastic containers than to bury it in a landfill. But plastic can't be recycled forever; eventually it will result in a brittle product if it is recycled too many times. Glass has the benefit of being able to be recycled over and over without losing quality in the finished product.

So let us not disguise profit for environmental concerns!

Posted via web from The Wine Vault