Bag the Box, Pass on Plastic: Survey Finds Nearly 100% of Wine Consumers Prefer Wine Packaged in Traditional Glass Bottles

To understand how glass stacks up when it comes to consumer preferences for packaging wine, The Glass Packaging Institute had a third-party take a look at consumer wine purchases and preferences. This included attitudes about organic wine and packaging for organic products in general.

“While we expected a preference for glass-bottled wine, we were still surprised by the strong and persistent partiality for glass,” says Joseph Cattaneo, president of the Glass Packaging Institute. “Glass protects wine, keeping it smelling and tasting as the vintner intended.”

According to the University of Oklahoma survey, more than 98% of consumers prefer to drink wine served out of glass bottles, with that number reaching nearly 100% for younger wine drinkers, ages 21-to-35. Wine has also emerged as a recognized part of everyday life. Nearly 80 percent of wine consumers say drinking wine is part of a healthy lifestyle.

“Consumers overwhelmingly agree that wine tastes best—and is the most pure—when packaged in glass bottles,” says Cattaneo. Since glass has an almost zero rate of chemical interaction, the product inside a glass bottle keeps its strength, aroma, and flavor.

Wine drinkers of all ages and regions of the U.S. believe glass bottles are the healthiest way to package wine (98.1%) and keep the taste of wine pure (79.8%). Consumers also agree that glass has the most appealing appearance (97.8%), does the best job of keeping the product fresh (94.1%), keeping the original flavor of the product (95.3%), and is the best material for packaging organic wine (95.4%).

When it comes to organics, the survey found interest in organic foods and beverages overall is rising, especially among consumers ages 18-to-34. And glass containers are the packaging of choice for organics. According to the poll, most health-conscious organic shoppers believe glass keeps the true flavor (79.8%) and purity (77.3%) of a food product. Glass also continues to be the first choice of the organic shopper by wide margins compared to other forms of packaging for health (77%), quality (67.7%), and preserving product shelf life (67.7%).

Glass is the “gold standard for purity and the environment,” according to the European Environment Agency, the EU’s version of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and glass is the sole form of container packaging in the U.S. to be “generally recognized as safe” by the FDA. Made from nontoxic raw materials—silica sand, soda ash, limestone and up to 70% recycled glass—glass is a natural packaging choice for organic products.

Buying wine in glass bottles ensures consumers get what they pay for—wine, without additional byproducts from the packaging. Glass containers are the only food and beverage packaging that do not use a plastic coating. And, wine bottles can be recycled again and again without loss of purity or quality. Nearly three-quarters of American wine drinkers expressing an opinion (73.2%) believe glass is the best packaging material for recycling, compared to bag-in-box wine containers (4.8%).

The telephone survey was conducted on April 14, 2009, by Newton Marketing Research, Norman, Oklahoma, in conjunction in Professor Doyle Yoon, PhD Gaylord College of Journalism
and Mass Communications, University of Oklahoma. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.7%.

Visit www.gpi.org/wine and www.gpi.org/organics to find out more about consumer preferences for glass.