Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR) has announced the weight goals for its Sparkling Bottle Weight Accord, following the 2023 Bottle Weight Accord (BWA) for still wines.
The SWR said a bottle can make up as much as 50% of a wine’s carbon footprint, making a weight reduction significant in reducing emissions.
As Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) begins, which requires producers to pay for their own packaging waste, there is also a financial incentive.
SWR said that if all bottles under the Accord were subject to UK EPR rates, this glass reduction would represent £58m in avoided glass fees.
Compared to still wines, however, lightweighting sparkling wines comes with greater complexities, particularly around safety.
According to SWR, bottles for sparkling wines need to withstand the pressures put on them by the carbonation of the wine. Failure of a sparkling wine bottle can cause serious injury.
To account for this, SWR said it considered carbonation levels, handling of bottles along the supply chain, temperature management and filling levels when deciding on the figures.
To reflect safety concerns, the report created by SWR has split target weights into different categories.
Champagne, which has a current average weight of 865g, has a target weight of 822g. Other traditional method sparkling wines have a current average weight of 812g, with a target weight of 780g. Meanwhile, Charmat currently sits at 641g with a target weight of 600g, and semi-sparkling wine has a current weight of 585g with a target weight of 550g.
SWR said it will be formally starting on the new Accord – establishing technical guidance and enrolling signatories – from November 2025. The final Sparkling Wine Accord is set to be launched in February 2026.
New signatories
Elsewhere, SWR announced two new major signatories for its still wine BWA.
North South Wines from the UK and Famille Perrin from the Rhone Valley have both pledged to meet the target of 420g per 75cl average bottle across their portfolios.
This brings the total number of signatories to 27 and represents over 2 billion bottles of wine produced and sold globally.
Erin Williams, sustainability manager at North South Wines said: “We were keen to join the Bottle Weight Accord, as it is working to address one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions in the wine industry.”
A representative from Famille Perrin, added: “Reducing the weight of our bottles has been an integral part of our company philosophy for over 15 years. Guided by our commitment to offer consumers more sustainable products and in line with our broader environmental objectives, we have continuously sought to reduce the impact of our packaging and contribute to a more responsible environmental footprint across the entire sector.
“Joining SWR and the Bottle Weight Accord both illustrates and reinforces our belief that wine can be enjoyed in lighter, more responsible packaging.”
