Viña Concha y Toro, which claims to be Latin America’s largest wine producer, has signed up to the Bottle Weight Accord, drawn up by the Sustainable Wine Roundtable. 

Launched a year ago, the Bottle Weight Accord aims to reduce the carbon footprint of wine packaging by encouraging participants to reduce the average weight of their 75cl still wine bottles to 420g by 2026. 

By signing up, Viña Concha y Toro has committed to reaching this target weight. 

At present, the brand produces 384 million bottles of wine annually through its group of wineries, including Casillero del Diablo, Trivento, and Bonterra. 

Viña Concha y Toro’s sustainability director, Valentina Lira, said: “We are confident that we are well on the way to the 420g average thanks to great efforts made by our product design, packaging, production, and sustainability teams to date. 

“This is just the first step for us as we look to continue reducing the weight of our bottles and incorporate new formats in the future. We will work closely with SWR to ensure we share our progress along the way.” 

Director of research at the SWR, Dr Peter Stanbury, added: “South America is one of the regions which historically has seen some of the heavier wine bottles used, so it is great to see Concha y Toro, a major player in the region, take the lead in committing to a lightweighting standard.” 

The Bottle Weight Accord is based on the Reducing Wine Bottle Weight report, published by SWR. It found that roughly half of the carbon footprint of wine can be attributed to the bottle. 

Other participants in the accord include The Wine Society, Terra Vitis, Tesco, Vinmonopolet, Naked Wines, Berry Bros & Rudd, Lidl GB, Waitrose & Partners, Direct Wines, Virgin Wines, Endeavour Group, Catena Institute of Wine, Alko Oy, Systembolaget, and Whole Foods Market.