Familia Torres is embarking on a pilot initiative involving reusable bottles. As the company announced, they will initially supply five gastronomy businesses with their white organic wine, "Viña Sol," in reusable bottles. The wine will be delivered in plastic crates commonly used domestically for mineral water or beer. The trial is set to expand to additional restaurants starting from October. This experiment is part of the EU-funded "rebo2vino" project, aimed at investigating the feasibility and impact of a reusable system within the Spanish wine sector.
Torres had previously participated in the Catalan "reWine" project between 2016 and 2020, which explored the viability of reusing wine bottles. Miguel A. Torres states, "The reuse of glass bottles presents an excellent alternative for specific markets and wine styles to advance emission reduction, provided that a uniform bottle format — preferably at the pan-European level — can be established. This is the next step we intend to take after already minimizing the weight of our wine bottles as much as possible."
"The reuse of glass bottles presents an excellent alternative for specific markets and wine styles to advance emission reduction, provided that a uniform bottle format —preferably at the pan-European level — can be established.
The bigger picture
Familia Torres is among the major players that have placed sustainability on their agenda. In 2019, they co-founded the International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA) together with Jackson Family Wines, which now comprises 40 member companies.
The new trial with reusable packaging is part of a series of sustainability projects initiated by Torres in the ongoing year of 2023. This also includes the utilization of livestock herds in forests and vineyards (known as agroforestry experiments) and a €6m research project involving "smart technologies" aimed at promoting more sustainable and efficient management by reducing resource consumption and optimizing usage.
The project "SmartCrops 5.1," led by Familia Torres, aims to promote more sustainable and efficient agricultural management by reducing resource consumption and optimizing usage. This initiative has a duration of four years and is supported by both the EU and the Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI Innovation). It involves the participation of eight agricultural businesses and seven research institutions from Spain.
