Some major wine producers are starting to use plastic bottles.

There really is nothing new in wine plastic containers, as we have all on occasion transferred wine from a box bladder to our own. I am not the world's biggest fan of box wine or 'casks'. They do not pour in a gentle flow, the wine jets out with a vulgar gush with more enthusiasm than an emergency comfort stop at a motorway service station, creating an almost foamy head in the glass, and often the floor. Wine brutalised by the bladder.

While we think we appreciate the sizable positive environmental impact of lightweight easy to produce recyclable plastic wine containers, there are other factors to consider before we all turn into Von Hagens plastinated people simply because it is more convenient.

Plastic wine containers are permeable and let in oxygen over time, which makes them vastly inferior to glass (oxidization is mostly bad news for the delicate structures of wine). Tests show that seeping oxygen can adversely change the character of unopened boxed and 'PET' plastic bottled wine from roughly eight months onwards. This means limiting the naturally recommended window to drink wine even more. The wine has barely taken its first steps before it has to be released into the wild. Admittedly most wine in these sorts of containers is designed to be drunk straight away, but the forcibly shortened drinking window bothers me.

Nobody blinked when milk went plastic, but milk has a very short shelf life and is a very different beast. If you are an obsessive milk sniffer, then this is maybe a great transferable skill for plastic bottled wine, which will probably also have a sell by date stamped on it like the box wine.

These new layered plastic containers can have oxygen 'scavengers' in them. Unfortunately they only work for 12 months or so. As I am no scientist my mind thinks of 'PET plastic scavengers' and has a picture of some tiny bloated spikey creature with a pot belly, languishing in the dregs high on wine and O2.


Boxed wine is not hermetically sealed, contrary to popular belief, but once opened, if you are lucky most of the wine will expel without letting any oxygen into the bag. The last glass or so can be problematic, and often this is when you let the air in with a unpleasant ripple of belching (or maybe that is the replete oxygen scavenger being flatulent). The short term advantage of boxed wine is that once opened it can last for a long time (four weeks plus), whereas PET plastic bottles not only have a short shelf life, but also are as susceptible to air as their glass counterparts once opened.

Where does all this new packaging technology leave us?... In an world of ugly inconvenient convenience in my opinion.

With the slow removal of the permanence, authority and glamour of glass, wines may take on the appeal of a sort of boozy grape smoothie, chosen indifferently by hurried shoppers over a mango, kumquat and coconut juice.

The good news for glass lovers is that current plastic technology is not up to the job of keeping your treasure chest of Bordeaux safe for several years, so glass will be around for a long time to come.

Now back to the environmental impact. Yes plastic is lighter and therefore greener to transport, but that is not the whole story. Apparently unlike glass, plastic cannot be recycled over and over again because it degrades significantly in the recycling process. Therefore the ideal image you have in your head of your plastic bottle being turned into another one is just fantasy for now. More likely a bin bag. Producing and recycling plastic bottles also releases lots more toxic nasties than glass bottles.

Suddenly this new form of bottle seems even less appealing.

Perhaps plastic bottles are only good for the producers who can save on shipping and manufacturing costs.

I suppose to be thorough you need to work out the carbon (and other) emissions in manufacture, transport and recycling of glass bottles vs plastic taking into account the degradation of recycled plastic. Sounds too complex a job for me and my maths. Anyone?

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