If droughts, low yields, fires, and smoke taint weren’t enough challenges for wine producers, another concern is in the mix right now: a glass bottle shortage.
What is Causing the Domestic Glass Bottle Shortage?
A report was recently published with a detailed analysis of the glass container manufacturing market in the United States—U.S. Glass Bottle and Container Market. Analysis and Forecast to 2025 Update: COVID-19 Impact. The report’s key findings shed light on factors driving the current glass bottle shortage.
The U.S. glass market is in short supply due to high demand for alcohol, and raw materials being reallocated to produce vaccine vials and supply-chain disruptions arising from the shipping-container crisis. Combine this shortage with pandemic-era labor shortages and it spells disaster if you’re in need of glass bottles right now.
What About Recycled Glass?
Glass is 100% recyclable, but only 31% of glass is actually recycled. Of the second-use glass products, beer and non-alcoholic beverage bottles account for approximately 40%, wine bottles for another 40%, and about 15% for food and other glass containers. There is an opportunity for growth potential in glass recycling, but that doesn’t solve the problem for winemakers right now.
Solutions for Scrambling Winemakers
What does that mean for winemakers? What do you do if you have wine sitting in barrels and no means of bottling it? Large-scale wineries have the supplies and space necessary to move excess wine from oak barrels to tanks, but most small wineries don’t have that option and wine will need to remain in barrels until they’re able to be bottled. Oak rounds out flavors, but too much time in oak will leave the final wine with an overbearing flavor of wood.
“Too much oak throws the wine out of balance. When oak becomes the dominant element in wine, it overshadows characteristic fruit flavors and tastes overwhelmingly woodsy.”
—Phil Long, Owner of Longevity Wines in Livermore, California
Some foresaw the challenge and stocked up on bottles from other markets (mainly Mexico and China). Others are gathering any bottles they can, even if that means a mix-and-match collection of bottles rather than uniformity in bottling. Some winemakers are packaging wine in cans, others are utilizing kegs more for on-premise by the glass programs, where possible. Switching your packaging isn’t a quick fix. It causes logistical issues requires huge upfront costs.
Domestic Wine Challenges & Consumer Impact
In addition to the challenge of not having enough bottles for wine currently in barrels, there is also a shortage of general shipping supplies such as cardboard and wood. It’s difficult to import wine into the United States right now because of the shipping container crisis, but it’s becoming more challenging for wineries in our own backyard to bring their products to market.
The challenges facing winemakers because of low yields due to droughts and fires, increased demand, glass shortages, and other labor and supply chain issues likely haven’t directly affected consumers quite yet. Low stock on shelves and price increases are likely on the horizon, but it won’t be a permanent situation.
So what is the best thing we can do as wine consumers? Be patient, well-informed, understanding, and continue to show support for our domestic wine producers.
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