Subscriber login Close [x]
remember me
You are not logged in.

Aluminium bottle tests the mettle

Published:  23 July, 2008

In another move toward environmentally friendly wines, an Australian company has produced a range of aluminium-bottled wines.

Brightlite is a cold-extruded, seamless, shatterproof aluminium bottle lined with a food-grade coating and sealed with a tamper-proof screwcap.

It is less than a third of the weight of a normal 750ml glass wine bottle and not only chills the wine five times faster than glass but also prevents any UV light affecting it.

And as aluminium has a greater recycle value than glass, more of it is actually reusable.

This follows the news that Tesco and Morrisons are bottling their own-label wines in lighter-weight glass to reduce not only 6,000 tonnes of glass a year, but also carbon dioxide emissions from the vehicles needed to transport the bottles.

The Brightlite range includes a fruity red, white and rose named simply after their colour, with higher-than-average residual sugar. Each is non-vintage and de-alcoholised to just 6.5% abv. The entire first production run was bought by Australia's Coles Supermarket.

The men behind the brand, Jarrod Myles and Michael Bright, co-directors of JMB Beverages, said a unique selling point was essential to break into the already crowded drinks market.

In a move to target nightclubs, the paint on the outside of the bottle also glows under backlights.

The uncomplicated label, detailing just the brand name, colour, alcohol volume and the word "recyclable", is deliberately low market; 50% of Australian wine consumption is still from bag-in-box wines.

Keywords: