Wine in plastic bottles?
 

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.

Thanks sharing your experiences!

Yves

Wine in plastic bottles?
 

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.

Wine in plastic bottles?
 

"Yves" > wrote in message
...
> 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.
>
> Thanks sharing your experiences!
>
> Yves
This piece from 2006 suggests a problem with antimony leaching in PET
bottles

http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ChemTe...plex_issue.asp

I have found that home brewed beer in plastic bottles sarts to go flat over
a relatively short time.

Cheers

Martin

Wine in plastic bottles?
 

Plastic bottles seem to be OK for any beverage that you plan
to drink in the near future, but as others have pointed out,
it depends on what kind of plastic is used in the bottles.
We had a few bottles of club soda in the pantry, 2 plastic,
1 glass. Since we don't use club soda very often, the bottles
had been in the pantry for some time. Upon opening, the club
soda in plastic was flat, whereas the contents of the glass bottle
retained its fiz. Maybe a wine like Beaujoulais nouveau could
be packaged in plastic bottles.
:-)
Dick

Wine in plastic bottles?
 

On Aug 16, 2:51*pm, dickr2 > wrote:
> Plastic bottles seem to be OK for any beverage that you plan
> to drink in the near future, but as others have pointed out,
> it depends on what kind of plastic is used in the bottles.
> We had a few bottles of club soda in the pantry, 2 plastic,
> 1 glass. Since we don't use club soda very often, the bottles
> had been in the pantry for some time. Upon opening, the club
> soda in plastic was flat, whereas the contents of the glass bottle
> retained its fiz. Maybe a wine like Beaujoulais nouveau could
> be packaged in plastic bottles.
> :-)
> Dick

Many years ago while visiting Crete I bought wine from a small bistro
out of a large cask and put the wine into an empty 1 litre plastic
Coke bottle. The wine cost about one US dollar per litre. The
plastic bottle didn't hurt the wine a bit.

Wine in plastic bottles?
 

"Mike Tommasi" > a écrit dans le message de
...
> On 16/08/2010 20:51, dickr2 wrote:
>> Maybe a wine like Beaujoulais nouveau could
>> be packaged in plastic bottles.
>
> The bottle would melt.



O that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

Hamlet, Shakespeare.

M.

Wine in plastic bottles?
 

First of all, thanks to all posters for their answers about plastic bottles.
Mike's response about Beaujolais nouveau was stunning!

About Crete: I do not know if it is still true today, but about ten years
ago, you could buy what the locals called RAKI. Now this is not an
anise-seed-based drink like its namesake in Turkey, but the equivalent to
marc or grappa. Production was not entirely legal, but widespread and
tolerated, and you could get the stuff in tavernas and on local markets,
where in was sold in any kind of re-used whisky or coke bottles (plastic and
glass).

Some rakis I tasted in restaurants over there where quite palatable, so I
decided to take a bottle home.

Believe you me: Never has there been a beverage that I spat out so fast!
Utterly disgusting stuff... Before pouring it down the drain, I thought I
might decimate the fish population in the local river, so I poured the raki
in the garden. Know what: the next morning, the grass hat turned brown and
remained brown for the next few weeks...

All the best in wine and life,

Yves


"Bi!!" > wrote in message
...
On Aug 16, 2:51 pm, dickr2 > wrote:
> Plastic bottles seem to be OK for any beverage that you plan
> to drink in the near future, but as others have pointed out,
> it depends on what kind of plastic is used in the bottles.
> We had a few bottles of club soda in the pantry, 2 plastic,
> 1 glass. Since we don't use club soda very often, the bottles
> had been in the pantry for some time. Upon opening, the club
> soda in plastic was flat, whereas the contents of the glass bottle
> retained its fiz. Maybe a wine like Beaujoulais nouveau could
> be packaged in plastic bottles.
> :-)
> Dick

Many years ago while visiting Crete I bought wine from a small bistro
out of a large cask and put the wine into an empty 1 litre plastic
Coke bottle. The wine cost about one US dollar per litre. The
plastic bottle didn't hurt the wine a bit.