Lack of bottle hitting wine lovers
Richard Edwards
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Now call me a traditionalist but I prefer my wine bottle to be, well, a bottle. However, as I, and a number of other thirsty people have recently found to our cost, soaring energy prices are having a rather unwelcome effect on an industry that has enjoyed almost unparalleled growth in the past decade.
Here in the UK, Waitrose are the latest retailer to be hit by a global shortage of clear glass bottles, meaning that the company is considering joining Sainsbury in selling wine in the kind of plastic bottles usually reserved for beer and soft drinks.But as wine buffs shake their heads in collective disbelief, rising costs mean that this could become a far more common occurrence in the coming months and years.
As Nick Rose, wine buyer for Waitrose, told the Financial Times, glass bottles are becoming harder and, crucially, more expensive, to source, with the cost of a bottle now running at 13p, up from 10p in 2007. “Producers have had to stand in line and wait for suppliers,” he said.
Despite the bottle shortage, it does, thankfully, look as though wine stocks are holding firm – despite unseasonal weather in many major grape producing countries. So with the wine taking care of itself, lets hope that the bottle situation will resolve itself soon - something that us wine-loving Europeans would undoubtedly raise a glass to.
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