BBR removes capsules to be environmentally friendly

UK-based wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd plans to remove the capsule at the top of a wine bottle from its own range of wines to improve the environmental credentials of its wines. The packaging project is the first in a series of changes Berry Bros is looking to make to deliver on this target and also become plastic-free by 2030.

Capsules are used to protect the cork from being gnawed away by rodents or infested with the cork weevil, and to serve as collar to catch small drips when pouring. The foil also serves as a decorative element of the bottle's labelling. Foils were historically made of lead, but research showed that trace amounts of toxic lead could remain on the lip of the bottle and mix with the poured wine, so lead foil wrapping was slowly phased out, and by the 1990s, most foils were made of tin, heat-shrink plastic, aluminium.