Winebits 675: Wine packaging, wine writers, Brazilian wine

This week’s wine news: Swedish wine drinkers say plastic bottles could be OK. Plus, a gift suggestion for the wine writer on your list and Brazilian wine makes a comeback

• Yes to plastic? Two-thirds of Swedish wine drinkers say they’d consider buying wine in a plastic bottle. This is stunning news, given plastic’s unsavory reputation among wine drinkers and even though Swedes are not exactly a perfect fit the for typical wine drinker. The study, from Britain’s Wine Intelligence consultancy, may be another sign that the traditional 750 ml bottle and cork-style closure has competition. Plastic and PET bottles came in third behind boxed wine (74 percent) and the 750 ml bottle (85 percent). It’s probably significant that the traditional bottle didn’t score in the 90 percent range, given that most of the wine in the world is still sold that way.

• Wine, of course: The weekly PR Newswire tip sheet offers holiday gift ideas for writers. The list includes the Jed Steele Writer’s Block wines, a long-time favorite among the wine writing community. This reminds me of my failed attempt, in the blog’s early days, to get someone to make a red and white $10 blend, called something like Wine Writer’s Plonk, with a scruffy wine writing type hunched over a typewriter on the front label. Several winemakers told me the idea was not cute and would not sell and that I should stick to wine writing.

• Brazilian wine: The pandemic is boosting Brazilian wine, long known mostly in this country for its role in the white zinfandel boom. China’s Xinhua news agency reports that sales were up 37 percent from 2019 to 2020, and sales in July were triple the amount in March. Brazilian wine, even in Brazil, is little respected, but the pandemic seems to be changing that. Says one analyst: “The great challenge for the sector now will be maintaining the customers that it gained during the pandemic,” after investments to improve wine quality over the past several years.

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