London Wine Fair 2023 is set to spotlight sustainability, with 10 educational sessions and a research scheme on bottle reuse that will be conducted in partnership with The Porto Protocol and Sustainable Wine Solutions. 

Around 80 sessions will be held across the three-day event; a “record number” for London Wine Fair. With sustainability being noted as 2023’s key theme, the Discovery Zone’s Centre Stage will feature a variety of sessions on establishing a more sustainable wine industry. 

This year’s fair will see a particular focus on sustainable packaging, with Sustainable Wine Roundtable due to host a session on the link between glass bottles and carbon emissions. The session will take place on Monday May 15 at 10.15am. 

Elsewhere, 2023 will see the first Bottle Collection Initiative – a new scheme that will categorise all waste bottles collected at the show according to bottle type, label and country in a move to gather data on bottle reuse.

Using bottles from the event, London Wine Fair will be conducting research with The Porto Protocol, an organisation that works to encourage climate action in the wine industry, and Sustainable Wine Solutions to create a report on the benefits of reusable bottles and the challenges facing the reuse supply chain. 

An estimated 30,000 bottles (based on the number of the exhibitors) will be collected over the course of the fair. The report will then detail the variety of bottle types in use and how many bottles were reusable.

As part of its work with London Wine Fair, The Porto Protocol team will be hosting a seminar on reusable bottles on Wednesday May 17 at 12pm.

Director of London Wine Fair, Hannah Tovey, said: “Sustainability is the central theme for this year’s show and we are delighted to be platforming so many discussions, tastings and launches with a green agenda.  

“The LWF23 Bottle Collection initiative takes this to another level, creating a practical solution for the circular economy.  We are delighted to be the launch pad and look forward to seeing the resulting report and a roll out of the scheme to subsequent events around the world.” 

London Wine Fair 2023 will take place at London Olympia from May 15 – 17.