Sweating the small stuff can make a big difference for wineries looking to save money while still looking sharp on retail shelves.

Prudent businesspeople always seek to control costs—never more so than right now. Smart winemakers, though, know better than to cut corners on their product. A pretty package may prompt a consumer to pick your wine once from among a sea of selections, but if what’s inside doesn’t deliver, she won’t buy your brand again.

So in the second vintage of the current recession, we asked wineries what packaging changes they’d made to retain vital shelf appeal while improving the bottom line. We learned that building and maintaining vendor relationships and making intelligent adjustments are key to reducing packaging costs. Improved technologies are bringing both environmental and economic benefits to savvy wineries that closely evaluate even the most mundane details of their packaging practices.

Change comes with risk, and sometimes with start-up costs. But have you really examined all your options?

Lighten up
Heavyweight bottles may still be the equivalent of “black tie” for ultra-premium wines, but lightweight glass has become the “casual Friday” attire for many everyday and weekend wines. Veteran industry suppliers have added lighter, traditionally styled bottles to reduce heavy lifting for consumers and winery accounts alike. Material and shipping costs automatically decrease.

• “Everyone’s doing it. ‘Take the weight out of the glass,’ brand managers will say. ‘That bottle is too fat for a woman’s hand,’” says Erica Harrop, founder of Global Package LLC, Napa, whose new Elegant Light line is “efficiently designed and environmentally conscious.”

• “In glass manufacturing, it’s not a 1:1 ratio, but lighter is cheaper. We’ve seen people look at lighter weight glass as an alternative. If you’re using a 24-ounce bottle, and you go to 22 ounces, will your clients notice? My feeling is, no, they won’t,” says Kyle Rossler, vice president of sales and marketing for Encore! Glass, Benicia, Calif.

• Katy Leese, co-founder of Sonoma’s 585 Wine Partners, says that the 400,000-case producer of Picket Fence, BivioItalia and Steelhead wines is having Saint-Gobain Containers, Fairfield, Calif., make molds for its new ECO-series bottles to suit the Red Truck line, which uses both cork and screwcap closures. “They’re 4 to 6 ounces lighter,” Leese says of the new bottles.

• John Tudal, owner of St. Helena’s Tudal Winery, reports that his second label, Oakland, Calif.-based Cerruti Cellars, uses Chinese-made bottles sourced from Trilogy Glass and Packaging, Santa Rosa, Calif. “We save 60 cents per case with it.” He says, despite initial doubts about Chinese glass, “We’ve determined that QC is now improving.”

• Mike Haering, Brown Forman’s brand manager for Fetzer Vineyards in Mendocino County, reports that all Fetzer’s 23 million bottles for domestic and Canadian sales are special, lighter weight models from Ohio’s Owens-Illinois. This, he says, has resulted overall in 10% savings for materials and another 2% in freight costs. Haering expects Fetzer’s initial expense for the investment in custom molds to be amortized over 12 to 18 months; the winery also hopes to convert bottles sold in Europe as early as this spring.

Labels, front and back
Trimming labels, whether by choosing different stock or ink, opting for a simplified design, or using more generic back labels, also can produce savings without reducing recognition. Technology is helping here, too.

• “Sometimes with paper label stock, you can go thinner and stronger. The quality is getting better, and new stocks can pass the ice-bucket test,” according to Andre Boada, director of brand development, wine and spirits for San Francisco’s Voicebox Creative. In a long career at Jackson Family Wineries, Boada worked on brand strategies for iconic labels including Ravenswood, St. Clement, La Crema and Hogue. Boada recommends packaging focused on tiers: “Pull the lower-tier cost down, put the savings into the upper tiers” to remain competitive in the sales landscape.

At Ravenswood, that meant going to two-color printed labels for the lower-tier Vintners Blend and using more generic back labels: eliminating vintage dates, for instance, so that printing overages can be used for multiple years.

Hogue was using a two-piece front label. “We looked to save money and bring back eye-appeal by going to a one-piece label.” This saved printing costs and is easier to apply. Here, too, Boada chose more generic back labels; the redesign resulted in savings of 12%-15%, he says.

• Katy Leese at 585 says her label savings were “all in the printing process.” She eliminated embossing across the board and uses self-adhesive flex-labels from ColloType Labels International, Napa.

• Famously green Mendocino Wine Co. and Parducci in Ukiah, Calif., had switched some years ago to a label stock made from Kenaf, a papyrus-like tree-free paper. Unfortunately, says marketing and sales coordinator Kelly Lentz, this is no longer available, and now the winery labels are 100% post-consumer recycled paper. By returning the Parducci look to a simplified design without foil, and switching to soy-based inks, “We cut printing costs in half,” Lentz says. She adds that printer Cameo Crafts, a York Label Co., in Sonoma, “has been great,” despite the fact that recycled paper is more delicate and the soy ink takes a little longer to dry. The wineries also use generic back labels for each varietal, space that serves as a billboard for their sustainability message.

• “By writing our own back labels in-house, we save money there, because we don’t farm it out,” John Tudal says. “Because we’re a small company, everyone pitches in. We’re willing to hire people who will be versatile; sort of how Tony La Russa manages a baseball team.”

Over the top
It’s no longer a given that premium-priced wines must be sealed with traditional corks and capsules. Improved synthetic and “technical” corks can eliminate losses from TCA contamination and s ave money. Upgraded polylaminate capsules provide the finished look of foils at a fraction of tin’s cost, and screwcaps are beginning to appear atop even age-worthy red wines. Scheid Vineyards, best known as a Monterey County grapegrower, custom-crush and bulk wine producer, is now bottling all of its own-labeled 6,000-case-per year production under screwcap.

• During his redesign at Ravenswood, winemaker Joel Peterson encouraged Andre Boada to change the brand’s “workhorse” Vintner’s Blend to a synthetic cork and a short “half-capsule,” which achieved 30% savings in closure costs. The brand name is imprinted on the visible lower part of the cork. For St. Clement, Boada limited capsules to a single color per tier. Hogue’s Genesis line soon will be entirely under screwcap. La Crema transitioned from tin to polylam capsules. “The technology has come a long way” for color saturation, over-printing and application of this less-costly option, Boada says.

• John Tudal is sealing his $14/bottle, 600-case Cerruti Honker Blanc and $14, 2,000-case Tractor Shed Red with DIAM TCA-free composite corks from Oeneo Closure. “That saves us 7.5 cents per unit: 90 cents per case,” Tudal notes. “We think they have become a good substitute for traditional corks for wines that are not intended for long-term aging.”

• The Mariposa Wine Collection in Madera, Calif., recently increased production to about 8,500 cases annually for its three brands: Cru–, Carmichael and Yosemite View. General manager Debra Morris reports that for the top-tier Cru– ($24-$40 per bottle), Mariposa recently switched to the DIAM closure. Although the change was primarily because of quality control issues, it brought significant savings as well. “We wanted to make sure the product that gets to the consumer is as we intended. And we saved one-half to two-thirds compared to previous corks: 16 to 17 cents per DIAM versus 35 to 50 cents per traditional cork.” The DIAMs are imprinted: “We have chosen this closure to ensure the integrity of our wine.” For the popular-priced Yosemite View, Mariposa is returning to Stelvin screwcaps, Morris says.

Splashy plastic packaging
Wines packaged in plastic are hardly new on the scene; bag-in-box or “mini-barrels” have gained wide acceptance for their recyclability, light weight and ability to preserve wines once the package is opened. This year, U.S. producers have begun using PET bottles, too.

• Katy Leese cut costs for Red Truck’s mini-barrels, switching to unbleached kraft outer boxes printed in red and black; White Truck 2008 Chardonnay recently has been released in the mini-barrels, too, at $29 per 3-liter mini.

• Last summer, Boisset Family Estates introduced Fog Mountain Merlot in PET bottles; it was the first California wine so packaged. Because the oxygen-scavenging MonOxbar material from Constar weighs much less than even lightweight glass, Boisset opted to increase the capacity. Instead of the traditional 750ml bottle, Fog Mountain’s PET bottle holds a full liter that retails for $12. The bottles are blow-molded by Field Manufacturing.

• Sassie International Vintners & Distillers Group, Toronto, Ontario, just introduced what it claims is the first full line of premium California wines sold in the U.S. in PET bottles. The 750ml bottles are coated with an opaque, silvery finish, giving the appearance of aluminum. At just 1.8 pounds per full bottle, a 12-bottle case weighs merely 22 pounds, significantly reducing shipping costs, according to Jim Pappademas, CEO of Sassie’s U.S. distributor Stateside Cellars. About 5,000 cases are currently in release, and the second vintage is on its way; retail price is about $10. Sidel and Husky Injection Molding Systems supply the bottles to Sassie’s production facility at Sonoma Wine Co.

Packing up your shippers
Whether you’re selling through the three-tier system or direct-to-consumer, your box or bottle needs a final package. Wineries are also finding ways to reduce costs in their shippers.

• “It’s not a mystery what’s happening today,” says Kyle Rossler at Encore! “Customers have asked for shorter dividers (between the bottles.) There are not a whole lot of options without sacrificing packaging integrity.” Some buyers opt for boxes with 200-pound burst-strength versus a more typical 250 to 275 pounds, Rossler says. In addition to cardboard weight, “Cost depends on partitions, colors, scoring.”

• Mendocino Wine Co./Parducci saves by using unbleached, chlorine-free kraft boxes, with a minimum 70% post-consumer recycled content, printed with water-based inks. “If you have a smart designer, you can really save,” according to Kelly Lentz.

• Katy Leese says 585 changed from four-color shippers to two-color kraft shippers representing its Red, White, Pink and organic Green Truck lines. “They are more environmentally friendly; we’re using all recycled material and kraft is easily recyclable.” Estimated cost savings: 35-40%.

• Make sure your shippers aren’t bigger than necessary. Distributors may charge from 25 to 90 cents per bottle if they must “break” a case into smaller increments. Direct and wine club shipments can range from two to six bottles. “People can buy wine every day,” Andre Boada notes. “Why buy a full case? For my clients, I’m looking at options for six-bottle or three-bottle shippers.”

• Of course, if your bottles don’t arrive at their destination intact, it will cost you much more than you’ll save with a frugal shipper design. PakSource Inc., Sacramento, Calif., now offers a full line of 100% recycled kraft shippers in sizes from one to 12 bottles. It claims its patent-pending, trademarked WineShield corrugated shippers are stronger and more durable than alternative materials, provide similar temperature protection and are UPS and FedEx certified.

Obviously there are many ways to economize on packaging without sacrificing shelf appeal. Global Packaging’s Erica Harrop wrapped it up neatly: “People are having to be a lot smarter. They are really paying attention now. You need to ask yourself, ‘How can I improve? Who can I align with? Who can assist?’ There’s a huge factor for change. The old sta tus quo doesn’t work anymore.”

Still, several sources volunteered that working with long-term suppliers can provide valuable adjustments to packaging costs. A congenial relationship with your suppliers motivates them to work with you, even if it means reducing the price-points of your orders from them. Established suppliers want to keep your business, and they will work with you to save costs, retain the relationship and keep your package looking great.

For more on packaging suppliers, see Wines & Vines’ 2010 Buyer’s Guide in print or online at winesandvinesdirectory.com