Wine — 750ml Glass Bottle

Product Profile

A standard 750ml glass bottle of wine covers everything from entry-level table wine to fine Bordeaux. The reference product is a mid-market still wine (red or white) sold in a conventional 400g soda-lime glass bottle with a natural cork or aluminum screw-cap closure.

At 1.2 kgCO2e per bottle, wine sits at the lower end of packaged food and beverage footprints on a per-unit basis — but glass dominates the impact in a way that surprises most producers. The bottle itself accounts for nearly half the product’s carbon cost before a single grape is crushed.

Why the Score Is What It Is

Two factors define the wine carbon story: the weight and energy intensity of glass, and the land-use complexity of viticulture.

• Glass is heavy and hot to make. Melting soda-lime glass requires furnace temperatures above 1,500°C. A standard 750ml wine bottle weighs roughly 400g — heavier per unit of liquid than a beer can or a carton. Glass production emits approximately 0.5 kgCO2e per bottle at average European grid intensity.
• Viticulture is agriculture. Grape growing involves fertilizer application (N2O emissions), diesel machinery, and irrigation energy. These are typically Scope 3 upstream emissions for the winery.
• Winemaking adds modest direct emissions. Fermentation releases biogenic CO2 (excluded from the score under standard GHG accounting), but cellar energy — refrigeration, pumping, aging in temperature-controlled facilities — contributes real Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
• Logistics can swing the score substantially. A bottle shipped from Australia to Europe by container ship can add 0.15–0.3 kgCO2e versus a locally purchased French wine.

Scope Breakdown Detail

Scope	kgCO2e	% of Total	Key Drivers
Scope 1	0.2	17%	Winery energy, vineyard diesel, refrigeration
Scope 2	0.1	8%	Winery purchased electricity
Scope 3	0.9	75%	Glass bottle, upstream agriculture, cork, transport
Total	1.2	100%

Comparison Points

Format	Approx. kgCO2e	Notes
750ml glass bottle (standard)	1.2	Reference product
750ml glass bottle (lightweight, 300g)	0.9	Increasingly common in premium category
Bag-in-box wine (3L / 4 standard servings)	0.6 total	Aluminum bag + cardboard; ~0.15 per serving
Wine in PET bottle (750ml)	0.7	Less common; emerging in RTD and export formats
Wine in can (250ml)	0.35	Aluminum can; carbon-intensive to make but lightweight

Lightweight glass is the fastest lever for producers: switching from a 400g to a 300g bottle reduces packaging emissions by ~25% with no change in product.

Provenance Override Guidance

Wineries with ISO 14067-compliant Product Carbon Footprint declarations or verified Carbon Trust certifications may submit provenance overrides. Key data points to include:

• Bottle weight and glass supplier EPD — the single largest variable
• Vineyard agrochemical use and irrigation source — electricity vs. diesel vs. gravity-fed
• Cellar energy source — renewable vs. grid; many European wineries have on-site solar
• Transport mode and distance to end market — sea vs. air freight is a significant multiplier