Introducing The World's Greenest Wine Bottle (It's Paper!)

Would you be more inclined to drink wine from a box if it had a bottle's shape? Quality aside, the most compelling reason to consider a non-glass approach to wine packaging might be the production and environmental benefits. Stranger & Stranger, the same branding firm that proposed space-saving square wine bottles in collaboration with Truett-Hurst wineries just debuted another energy-saving concept: Paperboy Wine.

The bottles, composed from compressed recycled paper, are basically the same idea as wine in a box, with an interior sleeve that keeps the liquid from seeping through — just in bottle form. Wine purists may shrug off the idea as a just a gimmicky head-turner, but it's pretty hard to ignore the sustainable benefits of going with paper over glass. Each bottle consumes only 15 percent of the energy required to produce your standard wine bottle. What's more, these empty paper bottles weigh in at only an ounce, translating to a drastically reduced carbon footprint when it comes to shipping. The bottles, designed to hold up in watery ice buckets for up to three hours, also have better insulation properties.

Whether the idea will catch on among other wine producers is yet to be seen, but hats off to Stranger & Stranger for combining an innovative concept with a modern design that doesn't fully abandon the familiarity of how we drink.

Paperboy is expected to launch at Safeway grocers in early 2014.

The future of wine...in a familiar shape. Paperboy's bottles are made from compressed recycled paper and consume only 15 percent of the energy required to produce a typical glass bottle.[/caption]
The double-take-inducing bottles feature a modern design aesthetic reminiscent of paper bag wine sleeves.[/caption]
Similar to wine on tap from a box, Paperboy's bottles feature an inner liner containing the actual wine.[/caption]

More design finds on Food Republic: