It’s been a busy year for Telmont. Following an extensive testing phase that commenced last spring, the Maison is set to begin manufacturing the first batch of its new champagne bottles – the lightest produced on record, weighing in at just 800 grams.
The Champagne house teamed up with French glassmaker Verallia for the project, working together to create a ground-breaking new bottle that is 35 grams lighter than today’s standard bottles of champagne, with a significantly smaller carbon footprint.
Despite this innovative, lightweight design, the bottles are just as sturdy. In fact, they’re still able to withstand up to twice the pressure found in a car tire.
Getting to this point hasn’t been easy, but it’s a project close to the champagne producer’s heart. Carrying the tagline ‘Au Nom de la Terre’ (In the name of Mother Nature), Maison Telmont has demonstrated impressive efforts to minimize its impact on the environment in recent years.
[See also: Michel Drappier on Taking Risks and Going Green]
These include a dramatic rethink of its packaging, eliminating all gift boxes and bespoke bottles, and replacing all transparent bottles (made from 0% recycled glass) with only green bottles (made with up to 87% recycled glass).
Related
It makes sense, then, that Telmont would next turn to reducing the weight of its bottles. Having worked out that the glass used to craft its bottles accounted for 24% of its total carbon emissions, the Maison began thinking about how to create lighter (and therefore less emission-heavy) bottles.
Working with Verallia, Telmont has crafted an ultra-light-weight design, carrying out testing on 3,000 bottles to ensure its exacting standards were met. Not only is less CO2 needed to produce the new design, but the lighter bottles will also require less fuel for transportation, resulting in further energy savings.
The Maison is now commencing production of the first batch of 30,000 new lightweight bottles of its organic cuvee, Reserve de la Terre, which will be available for customers to buy in 2026. But Telmont hopes its innovative design will extend far beyond the borders of its estate.
Content from our partners
[See also: Grower Champagne’s Emergence as a Wine for all Occasions]
“In the name of Mother Nature, we encourage everyone in Champagne to adopt this bottle,” said Ludovic du Plessis, president of Maison Telmont. “Why? Because using lighter bottles across the board is better for our planet and will benefit all!”
Axel Guilloteau, head of marketing and sales at Verallia, added: “This innovation, designed and developed in France, in our Oiry factory located in the heart of the Champagne vineyards is a new technical feat.”
“This is the second time that we have lightened this Champagne standard, in line with our environmental ambition to reduce our CO2 emissions by 46% by 2030. We are very happy to test this new bottle with Maison Telmont, and hope that this standard will be adopted more widely.”
The new lightweight bottles are just the latest initiative that forms part of Telmont’s pledge to become Climate Positive by 2030 and Net Positive by 2050. These eco-friendly efforts have caught the attention of several high-profile figures including Leonardo DiCaprio; the Hollywood actor and long-time environmentalist acquired an equity stake in the Champagne house last year.
[See also: How Champagne is Going Green]
