An Australian company has produced a range of aluminium-bottled wines. Brightlite is a cold-extruded, seamless, shatterproof aluminium bottle lined with a food-grade coating & sealed with a tamper-proof screwcap. According to the manufacturer, it is less than a third of the weight of a normal 750ml glass wine bottle & not only chills the wine five times faster than glass but also prevents UV light affecting it. This follows the news that Tesco & Morrisons are bottling their own-label wines in lighter-weight glass to reduce not only 6,000 tonnes of glass a year, but also carbon dioxide emissions from the vehicles needed to transport the bottles. The Brightlite range includes a fruity red, white & rose named simply after their colour, with higher-than-average residual sugar. Each is non-vintage & de-alcoholised to just 6.5% abv. The entire first production run was bought by Australia's Coles Supermarket. Developers, Jarrod Myles & Michael Bright, co-directors of JMB Beverages, said a unique selling point was essential to break into the already crowded drinks market. In a move to target nightclubs, the paint on the outside of the bottle also glows under backlights. The uncomplicated label, detailing just the brand name, colour, alcohol volume & the word "recyclable," is deliberately low market; 50% of Australian wine consumption is still from bag-in-box wines.
