Packaging wine in glass bottles is a process that goes back at least 1700 years, but it now seems that producers are ready to embrace a more sustainable approach to the bottling process.

Sainsbury’s will soon become the first UK supermarket to stock paper wine bottles following an agreement with When in Rome (WiR), one of the leading alternative format wine brands. WiR launched with both bag-in-box and can formats, moving on to paper bottles after working with Ipswich-based sustainable packaging company, Frugalpac. The new bottle is made from 94 per cent recycled cardboard – five times lighter than a glass bottle, it has a carbon footprint up to six-times lower than its glass counterpart.

“It is incredibly exciting to bring WiR’s message of quality, value and sustainability to the British public via the UK’s second largest supermarket chain,” said Rob Malin, founder of WiR.

Primitivo and Pecorino

The Sainsbury’s agreement will see WiR’s ‘bold’ Primitivo and ‘fresh’ Pecorino stocked in around 450 stores nationwide. The Anglo-Italian brand operate partnerships with small, independent vineyards across Italy, with the Primitivo produced by Cantina Sociale Cantolio, a co-operative of 700 winemakers in Puglia, and the Pecorino produced by Abruzzo winemaker, Manuel Casimirri.

Sainsbury’s was the first supermarket in the UK to sell drinks in paper bottles, stocking Greenall’s Gin from October last year.