According to a statement, the new 0.75-liter Rhine wine bottle developed by Vetropack has been awarded the Austrian State Prize for Smart Packaging 2026. The glass packaging manufacturer, which is headquartered in Bülach in the canton of Zurich but legally domiciled in St-Prex in the canton of Vaud, won this accolade in the B2C category for its new bottle design. Bottles of this name, traditionally used for white wines, are characterized by a slender, elegant shape.
Vetropack launched the bottle in June 2026 following an “intensive development and testing phase,” according to a statement issued by the glass packaging manufacturer. The company successfully reduced the weight of the bottle from 410 to 350 grams, which it claims makes this the lightest Rhine wine bottle in Europe. Vetropack cites the jury’s evaluation: “The weight reduction results in impressive reductions in CO2 emissions. The lighter weight is immediately noticeable when picking up the bottle. Existing filling processes and the established bottle design are retained.
For Harald Geist of Vetropack Austria, which produces this bottle with a recycled glass content of 80 percent in Pöchlarn, Lower Austria, the State Prize confirms the approach of “systematically improving established glass packaging designs. With the Rhine wine bottle, we have significantly reduced material usage while continuing to meet requirements for stability, filling and quality. This enables us to conserve resources and reduce weight without compromising the familiar bottle shape”.
Just as with the Swiss Packaging Award 2026, Vetropack was also nominated for its solution for the serialization of reusable bottles using Data Matrix codes. This permanently applied code gives each bottle a digital identity, thereby setting new standards for transparency and efficiency within the reuse cycle. ce/mm