You can now buy wine in a paper bottle at Laithwaites.

The retailer, which as offices and a wine school in Gloucester, has launched Redbrook Estate Bacchus 2021 made by winemaker Neil Walker.

The packaging of the white wine is made with 94 per cent recycled paper, with a recyclable plastic pouch inside, and weighs 83g.

It is a first for Laithwaites which wants to start offering more packaging options to customers.

The company describes the Redbrook Estate wine (£18.99 per bottle) as having "jasmine and chamomile aromas, and lime and grapefruit flavours".

Becca Reeves, buyer for Laithwaites, told The Drinks Business: "We were delighted when Neil came to us with his Redbrook Bacchus wine. He's a self-confessed wine science nut - completely committed to finding the most environmentally friendly winemaking methods. Definitely our kind of guy. Always doing things differently, he's even aged wine at the bottom of the sea."

She added: "Neil's determined to remove glass from his wines and we're excited to be on that journey with him. Especially when the wine tastes this good."

Laithwaites expects to expand the paper bottle range in the future as eco packaging is now popping up over the industry.

Earlier this year ITV presenter Phillip Schofield announced he would be releasing his bag-in-box wine range in cardboard bottles.

He already launched two box wines in 2020 with Stroud-based company When In Rome.

It has ditched glass, using only paper and cans and is the UK's leading alt format wine producer.

Globally 19 billion glas bottles are sold a year. It takes a huge amount of energy to create them and because they are heavy transporting also creates a big carbon footprint.

Although glass bottles are recyclable they are often dyed green or brown so need to be sorted which takes extra resources and means they are often just thrown away.