Unless you've been living under a stone for the past few years you will have noticed that being ' green' and eco-friendly has become more and more important for consumers and producers alike and that's just as true in the wine indstry as in all the others. Bio-degradeable labels, lighter bottles and the avoidance of pesticides in the vineyards are just a few of the ways in which wine producers have responded to this growing concern.
Another trend you will have spotted if you are at all interested in champagne is that rosé champagne is becoming ever more popular. If you've chosen champagne for a romantic occasion then rosé just seems to be the obvious choice and to capitalise on the oh-so-tempting colour many champagne makers have chosen transparent bottles to show off their rosé to best effect.
But that's where the two trends collide; it seems that there are a few drawbacks with transparent bottles.
One is to do with storing your rosé. Most champagne bottles are green because the dark colour keeps ultra violet light away from the champagne and prevents the champagne picking up what is called a Goût de Lumière ( Taste of Light). Yes, it really exists and a bottle left too long near an electric light, or in bright sunlight, will pick up a nasty sort of metallic taint that will ruin your champagne.
That's why it's never a good idea to buy a bottle of champagne that you suspect has been on the store shelf a long time
So if you have a bottle of rosé champagne in a transparent bottle, don't keep it for too long, unless it's in a dark cellar. Instead, drink it as soon as possible! Tough job but some one has to do it.
The second problem with clear bottles is that in France empty clear bottles are not recycled seperately from empty green bottles. The used green and clear bottles are all broken up together and when you do that the result is the whole lot is re-cycled into more green glass. Why is this a problem? Well it means that all transparent bottles have to be made from scratch
That means that there are far fewer transparent bottles made than green ones and that in turn means the transparent ones are relatively more expensive to produce.
Last but not least transparent bottles are less environmentally friendly to produce because to make clear glass the raw materials have to be heated to a significantly higher temperature than they do to make green glass so quite a bit more energy is consumed in producing clear glass as compared to green glass.
So, quite a few new things to think about the next time you plan to buy rosé champagne.