The Sustainable Wine Roundtable welcomes five new members to its Bottle Weight Accord (BWA) as it reviews progress in meeting the 2026 target of 420g per 75cl bottle
January 27, 2026 — “We are fully aligned with the Bottle Weight Accord commitment, as more than 90% of our production at Bodegas Beronia uses lightweight glass. We continue to make progress in lightening our bottles, as we are aware that this is a key step in our decarbonization roadmap.” — Victoria González-Gordon, Chief Sustainability Officer at González Byass
The Sustainable Wine Roundtable is pleased to welcome five new members to its Bottle Weight Accord, as it issues the latest review of the BWA’s progress.
Distributors Ellis Wines and Guy Anderson Wines join wineries Bodega Beronia of Spain and Domaine Bousquet of Argentina, as well as the alcohol monopoly of Quebec (SAQ) in being the latest to commit to an average bottle weight of 420g across their portfolios by the end of this year (2026).
The original accord, announced in November 2023, set a target for each participating wine business. The attached report details the great progress made since then.
As Research Director at SWR, Dr Peter Stanbury, explains:
“The central aim of the BWA was to reduce the carbon footprint of the wine industry. It has been extremely successful in achieving this. In its first year, the carbon saving was more than 144,000 tonnes. In the past year, the expansion of the Accord membership means that the carbon mitigated in 2025 was nearly 294,000 tonnes.”
Where next for bottle weights?
The report reflects on what options lie ahead, once the original target has been reached. As Stanbury says,
“During 2026, SWR will undertake renewed research into still wine bottle weights to understand whether a lower target figure might now be realistic. We know already that many of our members’ wines are sold in bottles in the 350-370g range, and bottles as light as 300g are now increasingly widely in circulation.”
March 2026 will also see the launch of a Sparkling Bottle Weight Accord, where weights have been determined with an increased focus on safety with the contents under various different pressures depending on the style of sparkling wine made.
“We are pleased to join this agreement, as it reaffirms our commitment to working collaboratively toward reducing our industry’s environmental footprint. We remain steadfast in our ongoing dialogue and cooperation with industry partners in pursuit of shared objectives—objectives to which we have been committed for many years,” — Marie-Hélène Lagacé, Vice President, Public Affairs, Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility, Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ)
“Our priority has been working with suppliers to reduce their environmental impact by managing their packaging weights, which directly limits CO2 emissions in manufacturing and transport. Only by working together with our partners will we reduce our environmental impact across the supply chain.” — Ben Webb, Wine Buyer, Ellis Wines
Bottle Weight Accord – The Second Anniversary
About SWR
The Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR), an independent global platform dedicated to advancing sustainability in the wine industry. We are a membership organisation with more than 130 members reflecting the whole wine supply, and operating globally. Its role is to catalyse change in sustainability in the wine sector. This includes the Bottle Weight Accord mentioned here, but the SWR also focus on sustainable viticulture, labour standards and are currently developing a tool to allow comparison of the sustainability characteristics of different packaging formats.
About the Bottle Weight Accord
A key action area for the SWR is its Bottle Weight Accord (BWA), introduced in November 2023 in which partner companies commit to reducing the average bottle weight to 420g / 75cl. This accord now covers around 2.5 billion bottles across a wide variety of global businesses.
Participants include: Alko, Catena Institute of Wine, Endeavour Wines, Lidl GB, Naked Wines, Systembolaget, Terra Vitis, Tesco, Vina Concha y Toro, Whole Foods Market, The Wine Society.
