Winner – Rémy Cointreau’s Champagne Telmont
Since launching its ‘In the Name of Mother Nature’ project in 2021, Maison Telmont – the champagne house majority-owned by Rémy Cointreau and with Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio on board as an investor – has had a laser focus on sustainability.
As well as converting vineyards – both those it owns and those farmed by partner growers – to organic and regenerative viticulture, the company has systematically worked to reduce carbon emissions: eliminating superfluous packaging, discontinuing air freight and switching to 100% renewable energy consumption.
Telmont has also turned its attention to the champagne bottle, discontinuing the use of clear glass (which contains no recycled glass at all) and exclusively using green glass, containing 87% recycled material. Special bottle formats have also been eliminated because of their increased weight.
Previously, the industry considered 835g as the lowest weight possible for a standard, 75cl champagne bottle; anything lighter would be unable to withstand the pressure caused by the second fermentation inside the bottle, which creates an internal pressure equivalent to three times that found inside a car tyre.
Telmont worked with its glass-making partner, Verallia, to develop a bottle weighing only 800g, while preserving all of the attributes of a standard champagne bottle and without requiring any changes to its production equipment.
Extensive resistance testing over a three-year period covered all aspects of champagne production, from secondary fermentation through to transportation, with the successful outcome resulting in Telmont switching to the new, lighter format for all of its cuvées, from earlier this year.
The impact of the changes – 35g less glass per bottle – means a 4% reduction in carbon emissions for every bottle produced.
Telmont emphasises that it has no exclusivity over the new bottle design, saying that it “must benefit the entire champagne industry … If it became the new standard adopted by all champagne houses, the reduced impact would be equivalent to around 8,000 fewer tonnes of CO2e”.
The company adds: “Our ambition is to drive change and redefine the standards across the entire industry, much like visionary brands in other sectors – from smartphones to automobiles and computers – who have continuously innovated and challenged the status quo to drive change while uncompromisingly maintaining the quality of their products.”
Our judges said: “This was an extraordinary entry, pushing the boundaries of how light a champagne bottle can be, reusing recycled glass and innovating in terms of sourcing – with the potential to create a ripple effect across the entire champagne sector.”
