7 Feb 2023
An innovative, 100% recycled plastic, flat wine bottle being trialled by Cirencester’s Royal Agricultural University has scooped a bronze award in the Wine Design and Packaging category of the recent Global Wine Masters awards.
This is the first year that Cotswold Hills, the Royal Agricultural University’s award-winning wine and social enterprise based in Gloucestershire, has entered the international awards, and both staff and students are thrilled with the success.
Katherine Duke, Head of Enterprise & Employability at the RAU, said: “We are delighted that our innovative and sustainable use of packaging, matched with our distinctive Cotswold Hills labelling, has been recognised by Global Wine Masters. Our aim is to create delicious wines which look great while doing good by supporting our students develop their employability skills and using the proceeds to support students starting their own businesses.”
The award-winning Cotswold Hills wine, which is stocked in more than 125 outlets countrywide, is produced from mainly Ortega grapes at the University’s 2.6 hectare vineyard near Down Ampney, Cirencester. Products include a still white, a still rose, cans of fizzy white and rose wine, as well as a new white sparkling wine.
The Cotswold Hills project, part of the University’s award-winning Enterprise and Entrepreneurship programme, gives students the opportunity to gain first-hand enterprise and employability skills, learning about, wine production, marketing, sales, and finances.
Last year, Cotswold Hills was the first UK vineyard to trial the use of the recycled plastic flat wine bottles produced by Packamama with a small run of the 2021 English white wine being packaged in the new sustainable eco-flat bottles as part of an ongoing, student-led, project.
Hugo Sain-Ley-Berry-Gray, the RAU’s student lead on the flat wine bottle project who is studying for a degree in Applied Farm Management at the Cirencester university, added: “The award is a great achievement for the Cotswold Hills team. The flat bottle design has been well received with our customers and we are proud to receive recognition from within the industry with this prestigious award. We look forward to continuing the growth of this range following its positive reception.”
For more information, and to buy Cotswold Hills wine, please visit https://www.cotswoldhills.org.uk/
