The Niagara-on-the-Lake-based Stratus Vineyards has released its new, super-premium wine in bottles that are being used for the second time.  They believe this pioneering project marks the first time a North American winery has re-used their own glass wine bottle, setting a new benchmark for environmental responsibility in the wine industry.

“This re-use initiative is the latest step in Stratus Vineyards' attentiveness to the environment. Attaining LEED certification for our full facility – the first winery in the world to do so – underlined our singular commitment," says estate director Suzanne Janke. 

Valuing both innovation and community, winemaker Dean Stoyka led Stratus' partnership with environmental students from Niagara College in a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The students quickly confirmed that glass was one of the most carbon-intensive aspects accounting for 39 per cent of the winery's carbon footprint.  And, according to the Porto Protocol, an industry non-profit dedicated to mitigating climate change, that total is closer to 50-70 per cent when you factor in the energy needed to melt glass and transport it to market and consumers. Moreover, silica sand, a key component in glassmaking, ranks second behind water in terms of the world's most exploited resource per a 2022 UN report.

Despite the logical appeal of bottle re-use and its adoption in some smaller European wine regions, it is still not practised in the Canadian wine landscape. Commonplace in the beer industry, where the largest breweries agreed to a standard bottle, beer drinkers return their "empties" to the Beer Store and the bottles are cleaned and prepared for the next batch of beer.

To explore the possibilities for the wine industry, Stoyka found Circulr, a Kitchener, Ontario pioneer in the re-use glass movement, particularly in food packaging. Using Stratus wine bottles collected from both consumers and the winery tasting room, Circulr conducted trials for label removal, sterilization and food safety. These same bottles were returned to Stratus and now hold a new and distinctive wine which was ready for release on April 22 – Earth Day.

Source:  Grape Growers of Ontario May 17, 2024 newsletter