Packaging. What to know when you buy or take wine

Oxygen determines shelf life

Wine and oxygen are a tricky pair. A little O₂ belongs to maturation. Too much makes the wine flat or sour. That's why shelf life is primarily about the oxygen permeability of the packaging.

Glass with a good cork lets little oxygen through and is the classic choice for longer maturation. PET bottles let more through. Bag-in-box and Tetra have their own barrier — convenient for quick consumption, less suitable for years in the cellar. In the shop, you have this question to ask: are you opening a bottle for tonight, or are you buying for a month ahead?

Glass - still the standard, but lighter

Most quality wine comes in a 750 ml glass bottle. If the bottle is made of dark glass, it blocks light that accelerates maturation. Glass is heavy. For transport and CO₂, every gram counts. The Bottle Weight Accord, initiated by the Sustainable Wine Roundtable, urges producers to bring the average weight of still wine bottles below 420 grams by the end of 2026. Less glass means less freight and less energy, without the bottle breaking immediately.

Cork - stopper and maturation tool

The cork is more than a stopper. Natural cork breathes a little. Technical cork can control oxygen permeability more precisely. Winemakers increasingly choose a closure that fits the style they aim for. Agglomerate and perforated natural cork are more predictable in oxygen permeability, handy when you want to control maturation.

Over the past twenty years, cork producers have invested heavily in less TCA, the substance behind the musty taste in wine, through better storage, cleaner working, disinfection and mechanization. Laser sorting removes leaking corks.

A cork oak delivers bark for corks only after about twenty-five years. Recycling cork and reusing it in other products help not to waste this long growth cycle.

Not always glass - PET, cardboard, bag-in-box

PET is a lightweight plastic. Handy on the terrace and at festivals. Disadvantage: oxygen permeability. Expect limited shelf life, often up to half a year.

Cardboard and Tetra brick, a layered drink package, you see for cheap wine and some cava. Canandaigua Wine Company in the US was one of the first with Tetra Pak for wine. In many countries, you see such bricks alongside regular bottles in the same shelves.

Bag-in-box, cans, pouches, and paper bottles fall under alternative formats. The Wine Traders for Alternative Formats Association in the United Kingdom groups traders who consciously sell these forms. Lighter, less glass breakage, often better for one glass per evening. A screw cap is made of tinplate.

Research at the University of Barcelona let bacteria make bioplastic PHB in one step from potato starch, a hint toward packaging with less oil dependence. That touches the wine chain indirectly now, but fits the same theme: less single-use plastic.

Label and contents - also packaging

Not every package is a bottle. Pre-packaged grapes in the supermarket are in protective gas consisting of nitrogen and/or carbon dioxide, with acid regulators and stabilizers on the label. That's not wine, but the same story: gas and foil determine how long the product stays fresh.

Vegan wine is not only about clarification agents in the cellar. Anyone who eats strictly plant-based also reads the label for additives. The packaging usually contains no animal material.

Take away, deposit, waste

If you fly back with bottles from Priorat or Penedès, weight and breakage risk count. Bag-in-box or Tetra in the suitcase saves kilos. Glass requires bubble wrap and often extra baggage.

In Australia, stores under the Container Deposit Scheme take back empty bottles for a small refund. In Switzerland, the cycle is closed with the Bottle Back project: collecting, cleaning, and reusing wine bottles by winemakers, hospitality, and private individuals.

The Soil Association in the United Kingdom gives practical tips to recycle better at home: reuse where possible.

The Plastic Soup Foundation stands against plastic in oceans. For the consumer: less disposable, choose more consciously, also for the wine you drink on the beach.

Gilbert van Houten

13-6-2026