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The great COVID-19 supply chain monster of 2022 has made its way up and down the grocery aisles and hundreds of other places, causing all sorts of supply chain issues and affecting products from apples to wine. 

Demand has disappeared in some categories and skyrocketed in others. 

The reasons are many and varied: lockdowns that kept employees from working, employee shortages. 

Travel restrictions, including ship crews, port and dock workers and truck drivers, were disrupted.

Activity in every part of the economy — and now the wine business — has been affected.

Everybody was closed up in their homes, and they wouldn’t go out. 

We couldn’t go to church, restaurants, concerts, bars, so all of a sudden, we all have more disposable income. 

So, we turned wine. Which brings us to another shortage. 

Most of the glass bottles used in the U.S. come from outside the country. 

Years ago, glass manufacturers shifted production to countries where glass could be made more cheaply, mainly Asia. 

Mauricio Perez, North American regional director for Panamanian glass estimated that 60-70% of glass bottles used in the U.S. come from China.

“It’s a situation that’s not easily solved. It can take a year to build glass-making furnaces or establish new production lines,” Lutz

“Glass supply will be slow to come back to the United States because there’s just not enough glass manufacturers anymore.”

To make matters worse, a fire at one of Argentina’s largest glass factories in Mendoza quickly spread across an entire floor, destroying machines and supplies. 

Think of all the products that use or come in glass around your house. Your coffee pot, pasta sauce, jams, jelly, vinegar, olive oil, perfume, windows, windshields, mirrors, to name a few. 

In the medical field there is all the flasks and beakers in the lab, even the COVID-19 vaccine

There may be shortages of some of those products. So the glass bottle shortage begins.

A few of us visited with George at Silver Springs Winery and Greek Café in Riceville last week.

He mentioned that he isn’t sure if he will have enough bottles for his 2021 vintage. 

“Normally, I go through about 15,000 bottles a year, but I’ve only been able to get two pallets so far this year. A pallet is about 1,300-1,500 bottles, depending on size and shape. Maybe I’ll call the rest ‘reserve,’” he said as he laughs in his Greek accent. 

“It’s not a forever situation, be patient and continue to support us, and we all come out on the other side of it together.”

Experts believe that the glass shortage will threaten wine sales just before the peak Christmas season. 

Champagne, for example, has been hard hit by shipping delays and is especially seasonal. 

The U.S. is currently in the early stages of a Champagne shortage that is expected to last several years, but the shortages may not extend across the country.

Some retailers have most or all of what they expected to have; others have very little. 

Regardless of what’s in short supply, retail shelves won’t be bare. There’s enough wine in the supply chain, in warehouses, including previous vintages, to fill retail shelves.

Meanwhile, wine and spirit producers are moving to alternate methods of packaging. However, wholesalers and retailers are rejecting the new changes in sizes that requires a change in shelve space and in the warehouse as well. 

Many are considering boxed or even canning their wines. But even that isn’t as simple as just switching packaging options. 

Switching from glass to cans or boxed wine, can be a nightmare, because wineries don’t have that equipment and can have a huge upfront cost.

But the bottle shortage is the least of many winemaker’s worries. 

Now over oaked wines, drought, wildfires, smoke taint and low yields are also a concern.

Wine has its own particular set of problems, besides barrels, bottles and the like, but there’s also the need for what are called “reefers,” or refrigerated containers to ship wine that is bottled. 

Those containers are in short supply, and are even more in demand. Wine not shipped in reefers can get hot and go bad, especially if left sitting on a dock in a nonrefrigerated container waiting for a ship, truck or rail car.

It may get to the point where it may be difficult to find some of your favorite wines. 

I think it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better. Maybe a wine bottle deposit, like there was on soda bottles when we were kids.

So support local winemakers and other business who may be most affected by issues plaguing their industry.

Recycle all those bottles, Chris

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