FRANCE - Rising production and transport costs, as well as environmental concerns, have led champagne house GH Mumm to make and trial bottles which are 65g lighter than the standard ones.

GH Mumm, which is owned by French spirits and wine group Pernod Ricard, is trialling 2.5 million champagne bottles that weigh 835g each, 7.2% lighter than the standard 900g bottle.

Champagne bottles generally weight more than twice that of a standard wine bottle in order to contain the pressure of sparkling wine. Only champagne bottles used for ship-naming ceremonies are made structurally weaker and lighter to avoid the bad omen of failing to smash one.

GH Mumm’s bottle manufacturing and bottling trial processes have so far been successful. The next stage of the trial involves a two-and-a-half years wait, when the lighter champagne bottles are placed in a cave to age and ensure that they do not explode.

The champagne house hopes that a complete and successful trial will help its lighter bottles receive approval from French trade association Comite Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne (CIVC), which represents all champagne houses and growers and oversees the sale of 330-340 million champagne bottles annually.

CIVC, which has noted that rising production prices have been affecting champagne houses, said that if the full trial is successful, it may recommend the adoption of the lighter bottles to its other members.

According to Michael Roberts, founder of British sparkling wine group RidgeView Wine Estate, the cost of glass bottles had risen 40% over the past year as glass makers passed on higher energy costs to its customers.

Meanwhile, competing champagne house Pommery, owned by Vranken-Pommery Monopole, claims to be the only big champagne group to date to use the lighter 835g bottle. Since it started doing so in 2003, Pommery says that it can now load 4,000 more bottles on every truck.

This, CIVC said, makes lighter bottles an even more attractive option as it would also help lower the increasing transport costs. "If you put more bottles on the same truck, obviously you save petrol," the CIVC explained.

In addition, if every champagne house switched to the lighter bottles, it is estimated that there would be 3,000 fewer trucks on the road every year, cutting down on carbon emissions.