Weighing just 60g - compared to more than 400g for a glass bottle - and comprised of a 100% compostable paper casing, the paper wine bottles, complete with screw tops, are expected to hit the shelves by the end of the year.

Using the same composition as GreenBottle’s paper milk bottles, launched in Asda stores last year, the firm’s latest creation comprises a paper shell made up of hard and softwood fibres, combined with additives to create waterproof properties.

The paper casings, which are produced at GreenBottle’s St Helen’s, Merseyside manufacturing plant using a patented process known as ‘thermoformed pulp moulding’, contain a separate plastic liner which the firm claims consists of less than a third of the plastic than that of conventional plastic bottles. Machinery designed specifically for the production of the bottles can produce around five per minute.

The bottles’ surfaces are suited to a variety of printing options, particularly pad printing for complex-textured and curved surfaces, or they can be decorated using paper-based labels adhered to the surface, all of which can be carried out on site according to clients' orders.

Inventor and owner of GreenBottle Martin Myerscough said the company has the capacity to produce up to two million per year.

He added: "I don't see any reason why this idea won't be really successful. People laughed five years ago when the screw top came out and look at what a great percentage of the market they command now."