Wine in Paper Bottle

They have already won awards at the PAC Global Awards for Innovative Packaging in New York, and now the first paper bottles of Italian wine are filling the shelves in Germany.

Wine in paper bottles? Yes, it does exist. The Heinz Hein company from Wiesbaden imports the “Cantina Goccia” grape juice from Italy in a new type of sustainable packaging. “Sustainability is very important to the winemaker and to us. That’s why it was only logical to look for an alternative that doesn’t leave such a large ecological footprint as glass production, which alone consumes a lot of water,” explains Silvia Miebach, owner of Heinz Hein. At 82 grams, she says, the paper bottle is five times lighter than a glass bottle. It contains 77 percent less plastic than conventional plastic bottles, she adds. A floral patterned outer shell made of 94 percent recycled cardboard adorns the product. Inner PET protects against the paper packaging from softening, he said. “Overall, the carbon footprint is six times lower than that of glass bottles, according to manufacturer Frugalpac,” adds Silvia Miebach.

Innovation in the wine industry

The recycling principle of the paper bottle is already familiar from dairy products such as yogurt: After consumption, the outer shell is peeled off and goes into the waste paper, the inner packaging into the yellow or recyclables garbage can. “This is the biggest innovation in the wine industry for a long time. Rising prices and supply problems of glass are now a problem. We are therefore all the more pleased to have found a much better, environmentally friendly solution here,” says Miebach.