Soaring glass prices hit champagne bottles: Now they are lighter

Following the rise in glass prices after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the France-based glass packaging company Verallia announced that it has created an 800-gram champagne bottle, which is 35 grams lighter than existing bottles. This move is the result of four years of research by the company and tests conducted by the champagne house Telmont, in which Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio is a shareholder.

Last year, French wine producers introduced the Bordelaise Air wine bottle, which weighs 300 grams compared to the standard wine bottle weight of 405 grams. However, champagne bottles need to be sturdier and therefore heavier than other wine bottles, as the bubbles inside must withstand pressure. An ordinary wine bottle could explode if filled with champagne. In the early twentieth century, champagne bottles weighed 1,300 grams, but by 2010, the champagne trade association Comité Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne set the official weight at 835 grams.

'LIGHTER, MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY'

In its statement, Verallia said that it was able to further reduce the weight through an optimal distribution of glass that maintains the internal pressure specific to champagne. The company added that Telmont conducted trials over several years to ensure that the bottles would not explode.

Companies are hailing this initiative as an environmental victory, as the production of lighter bottles emits 4 percent less greenhouse gas compared to their heavier counterparts. The newspaper Le Figaro suggested that the reduction in shipping costs was also a motivation for the initiative. Following the invasion of Ukraine, with glass prices rising by up to 70 percent due to energy production costs, the search for cheaper bottles continues intensely.