Wine
Article reserved for subscribers
The scarcity of materials, linked in particular to Covid and the war in Ukraine, is slowing down the bottling of wine and jeopardizing the entire distribution chain. Winegrowers are thinking about alternatives.
The misadventure has just happened to Isabelle Perraud, winemaker in Vauxrenard in Beaujolais: “Usually, when I want to order bottles, I do so eight days before bottling by sending a simple text message to my sales representative. Except this time, he says to me: ‘Sorry, I won’t be able to get you any bottles for a month’. The case of Domaine Perraud is far from isolated. For a year, winegrowers from all over the French vineyards have been fighting for the materials necessary for the production of their activity. “Except that glass is special. This is an economic emergency for winegrowers. Without glass, we have no bottles, and without bottles, we have nothing to sell. And for the primeurs [les vins nouveaux du Beaujolais qui sont tirés en novembre, ndlr], This is all the more important: you cannot bottle a month later, otherwise it is no longer Beaujolais Nouveau!” She regrets that several winegrowers had the reflex to buy a lot of glass in advance and to overstock, depriving small estates: “We cannot cope with such a cash advance, nor store 40,000 empty bottles for months.”
Sheet, papers, scissors
Several factors explain the scarcity of materials, which does not only affect glass but also concerns paper, cardboard packaging and aluminum caps. The Covid crisis has already caused demand for glass to drop, forcing some glassmakers to stop production. “But he…