On Aug 15, 6:11*am, "Yves" > wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> my niece, who is working at a wine bottling company near Bernkastel-Kues,
> has been contacted by a salesperson who tried to talk her into switching to
> plastic bottles, pretending that they are already popular in some countries.
>
> Surfing the shelves here in Luxembourg, the only plastic bottle containing
> something related to wine was... Sangria...
>
> What is the situation where you live?
>
> IMHO the only advantage might be the carbon footprint for shipping, but this
> goal can be reached with bag-in-box, cubitainer etc.

There are so many kinds of plastics with wildly different properties,
that likely some are better than glass and some worse than glass for
wine storage. I have not seen any high quality wines in plastic
bottles in the US, but then I have not been looking for them. Many of
the soft drinks such as colas are now sold in plastic bottles,
especially for large sizes. Also some of the tiny airline single
serving bottles, mostly spirits, have been sold in tiny plastic
bottles for some time. Thus some food-grade plastics likely would be
suitable and safe for at least short term wine storage. Many common
plastics, such as some polyethylene, do allow some transfer through
their walls over extended time. Such plastics might not be suitable
for wines requiring years or decades of aging. There are some
plastics, such as some expensive Teflon-like ones, that do seal
extremely well and have often been used to store some very nasty
things such as hydrofluoric acid that will dissolve glass. Of course
the plastic must not add taste, smell, or toxins to the wine. Use of
plastics for wine bottles likely will follow the course of use of
screw caps. Thus at first plastic bottles likely will be mainly used
on low cost wine for early drinking. Then slowly a few will start
using perhaps the more expensive plastics on some of their wines that
have a longer life.