Cru Classé winemaker switches to sustainable packaging

A French Cru Classé vineyard is adopting a number of organic and sustainable practices, including packaging that saves on transportation costs

Spotted: Multinational luxury conglomerate LVHM has recently acquired Provincal Cru Classé estate Château Galoupet. The company aims to rehabilitate the vineyard to produce not only exceptional rosé, but exceptionally sustainable rosé. LVHM has already begun converting the estate to a certified organic producer – one of only five Cru Classé estates certified organic.

More noticeable will be Château Galoupet’s new packaging. The estates’ Galoupet Nomade wine will be packaged in flat plastic bottles made entirely from recycled plastic collected from coastal areas and provided by Prevented Ocean Plastic. In addition to being 100 per cent recycled and 100 per cent recyclable, the plastic bottles also weigh much less than traditional glass – at just 63 grammes, the new bottles are up to 10 times lighter than glass. Lighter bottles and a more space-efficient flat design also translates into more bottles per load, and much lower shipping costs. 

The estate’s Cru Classé will continue to be packaged in glass, but in a lighter bottle made from 70 per cent recycled glass. The estate will also be partnering with a variety of environmental organisations in a bid to improve biodiversity on the estate. This will include 150 beehives, which will serve as a research centre for the French Observatory of Apidology. Cover cropping and agro-forestry will be used to re-establish the interaction between the woodland and the vines, and an old reservoir on the estate will be revived.

Although often overlooked, reducing the amount of unused airspace in packaging can not only save large amounts of carbon, but also large amounts of money in transportation costs. Garçon Wines, launched in 2017, developed a bottle that could be posted through a letterbox. Other companies are using innovative packaging such as using edible, seaweed-based plastics to replace single use plastics and refillable dispensers.