PET bottles for sparkling wine

Designed to replace traditional glass bottles, Sipa presents the first PET bottle for sparkling wine to be filled on existing bottling lines.

The wine sector accounts for something like 45% of the market for glass bottles, which until recently was on a rapid rise - currently over 5 million tonnes, compared with 4 million tonnes in 2016, valued at over 2.4 billion euros. For reasons that can be attributed to the supply chain, including the rocketing costs for energy and raw materials, glass bottles are harder to find and much more expensive than they used to be. As a result in 2021 a wine maker buying glass bottles could easily have to pay 30% more than they did in 2020.

A key part of the SIPA innovation is the bottle neck, which looks just like the glass version, meaning that it accepts the classical mushroom-shaped cork with its metal cage. The base also looks - and works - the same as the original. The design provides a top-load resistance of minimum 3500N. The PET bottles have already been tested on glass lines, demonstrating perfect interchangeability with glass versions.

Sparkling wine consumers will enjoy the same experience with the new containers as they always have, from uncorking to pouring. But they may notice that the PET versions are lighter at just 90g whereas glass bottle average weight for sparkling wine is 720/750g, and less likely to break - which is also great for changing supply logistics as sales via e-commerce and home delivery continue to rise. It is always useful to mention that this dramatic decreasing on bottle weight may surely have a positive impact on Co2 emission due to a more efficient logistic.