Expanding the Bottle Weight Accord to Sparkling Wine

Delaney Sheridan

In 2023, SWR launched the Bottle Weight Accord—an industry-wide initiative to reduce the average weight of still wine bottles to 420g by 2026. Backed by 20 global signatories responsible for nearly 2 billion bottles each year, the Accord is already proving that industry collaboration can cut carbon and reduce costs.

Now, SWR is turning its attention to sparkling wine.

We’re pleased to share the first progress report on our upcoming Sparkling Wine Bottle Weight Accord. The report outlines the unique technical and logistical challenges of sparkling wine production, and presents a clear pathway to safe, practical bottle lightweighting across the category.

Dr Peter Stanbury, SWR’s Director of Research and Standards, explains:

“The sparkling wine category is a more complex one, as glass safety is a key consideration where liquids are under pressure. However, we are confident we can recommend targets across different sparkling wine styles which can benefit producers, traders, retailers and others, not just in reducing their carbon emissions, but also in their bottom line.”

While sparkling wine is more complex, viable examples already exist—particularly among Charmat-method and non-Champagne traditional method wines using lighter bottles safely at scale. SWR’s goal is to formalise these proven practices into style-based, evidence-led targets.

As Stanbury notes:

“Once we identify examples of where lighter-weight bottles are, and have been safely used, by sparkling wine producers at scale and over a period of time, we can confidently set these weights as a realistic target.”

The economic case is equally compelling. With Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fees on the rise, lighter bottles could mean major savings. SWR estimates that if the still wine Accord’s glass reduction had been subject to UK EPR fees, it would have avoided over £28 million in potential costs.

We invite you to explore the report for our initial findings and proposed next steps for reducing sparkling wine bottle weight.

Download the report here

Upcoming Webinar: From Still to Sparkling

Join us for an exclusive webinar on Thursday 12 June at 4pm BST, where we’ll walk through the report’s findings and share a six-month update on the still Bottle Weight Accord’s progress—including practical insights from signatories on how they’ve tackled commonly cited barriers to lightweighting.

Click here to register today