Photo courtesy of Wagner Vineyards
Since the pandemic began, supply chain issues have impacted the availability of everything from toilet paper to cream cheese. For wineries, the current bottleneck is the bottles themselves.
“Getting bottles right now is a very, very big challenge,” says Charlie Lybecker at Cairdeas Winery in Washington.
Several factors compounded to create this issue. More wineries are purchasing glass bottles and in larger amounts than before. They are buying them further in advance, too. While supply has not decreased per se, availability is constricted by international shipping delays.
“We know it’s a real problem, mostly for those people who are relying on imported glass,” says Scott DeFife, president of the Glass Packaging Institute. “Add to that all the other wrinkles: super high demand, really bad logistics, ports, shipping containers, trucks and energy prices.”
