Could it Be - Pinot in Plastic?

First came the banishment of health claims on wine bottles, then came screw tops and plastic corks. Now comes word that producers are threatening to replace glass bottles with plastic ones. Is anything left that is sacred when it comes to wine?

Promoters of plastic bottles (made from recycled PET) point out that they weigh less than glass bottles, they are easier to transport, they bounce instead of break when dropped on the floor (when is the last time you dropped a wine bottle - for me it has happened once or twice in my lifetime), and less energy and carbon dioxide emissions are required to make them (true).

Pinot Noir and Chardonnay have been introduced in plastic bottles by French producer Boisset. Aussies Wolf Blass, Hardy’s and Palandri have jumped aboard with other varietals. The UK’s Sainsbury market chain is pushing a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Australian Shiraz as well as two Wolf Blass wines all packaged in a plastic bottle.

Supposedly the plastic does not compromise the wine inside in any way, but this is not been fully proven. It would appear that the market for plastic bottles is cheap wines intended for picnics, barbecues and parties at the beach or around the pool - the types of wines that have a short shelf life and are consumed shortly after purchase.

They will have to drag me kicking and screaming or at least gagging if I am forced to drink Pinot Noir from a plastic bottle. Heck, even beer drinkers insist on glass or aluminum. Coke drinkers have long claimed that the cola tastes best bottled in glass. Pinot in plastic could be the end of civilization as we know it.