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It may sound harsh, but someone's got to say it. Pinot grigio is the vodka of wine.

Consider the evidence. The lean Italian white flows more freely at fashion soirees than mindless conversation. No one orders it with food, unless you count bar nuts. There is even a bizarre new rosé brand called Folonari Pink Pinot Grigio, which is the main ingredient in something called the Glamour Girl Cocktail containing peach schnapps and cranberry juice.

Still not convinced? Consider Voga Pinot Grigio (No. 669226). Maybe you've seen it. In fact, as with most premium vodkas, staring at the bottle is a major part of the appeal.

And Voga's bottle certainly is fetching. It looks, in fact, just like Madonna's favourite mineral water, Voss, the chic Norwegian brand in the straight-sided, cylindrical glass tube with a wide plastic cap covering the bottleneck. Picture a can of Pledge, only with a glass body.

Voga, which astute readers will note has the same first two letters as Voss and vodka, is an Italian brand that launched about a year and a half ago in Alberta and slightly later in British Columbia and Ontario. It was clear from the start that it would be no ordinary wine.

Unlike other big-brand pinot grigios, Voga steered clear of publications such as Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast, instead taking out ads in Vogue and Marie Claire ("voga" means vogue in Italian). Its website is unconventional too. Don't expect the standard bucolic images of vines and oak barrels on http://www.vogaitalia.com. But you will find beautiful women in revealing couture, like on Fashion Nipplevision, or whatever that show is called. There is even a woman striking a fetching pose while eating pizza, which has to be a first.

The wine is now among the top-selling pinot grigios in the country. Toronto-based importer Wine Lovers Agency says it's No. 5 out of about 20 pinot grigios available in Ontario. Which is saying a lot, because most big-brand pinot grigios have been around for 10 years or more and the category is on fire in North America, led by the 800-pound Grey Goose of grigios, Santa Margherita.

True, at $13.85 in Ontario ($14.99 in B.C.), Voga costs about a third of what its target audience might spend on a bottle of shampoo, but I'm still impressed.

Dominated by those big brands and known for a neutral taste, pinot grigio's greatest virtue may lie in its reliable inoffensiveness, even if, to be fair, there are sublime, handcrafted brands from Italy, such as those of Elena Walch and Jermann. Another attraction of pinot grigio is that most sell for less than $15.

The other important thing you should know about Voga, however, is it's surprisingly good. Round and smooth, it shows better concentration than a lot of lean, supercrisp pinot grigios, with a pronounced citrus character and vague note of vanilla. A crowd pleaser, to be sure.

It's kind of sad to have the bottle go empty and toss it into the blue bin (or drop it off at the bottle return). My first temptation, even before I realized Earth Day is next week, was to think of a secondary life for it. "Reuse" takes priority over "recycle," after all. It certainly would look more fetching than a plastic Brita pitcher on a dining table.

Besides reusing fancy-looking bottles such as Voga, there are other ways wine drinkers can pay homage to Earth Day and live more lightly on the land. Alternative packaging seems to be everywhere now. And no less than three provincial liquor boards (British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia) are currently running laudable "green" campaigns to cut waste. The Nova Scotia Liquor Commission's "Cheers to Change" program, for example, offers a free, reusable bottle bag with a minimum purchase of three bottles.

The campaigns include a growing number of products bottled in lightweight and easy-to-recycle containers, such as aluminum, plastic and cardboard Tetra Paks. Plastic bottles, sealed with screw caps, started as a curious experiment in Ontario by Australian producer Wolf Blass in 2006 and are blossoming into a bona fide trend. Jean-Charles Boisset, head of big Burgundy négociant Boisset, which came out last year with the plastic Yellow Jersey bottles, told me in France last month that he estimates there are now more than 30 plastic bottles on the market worldwide. Like cardboard Tetra Paks, plastic bottles have the virtue of weighing next to nothing, so there's less carbon exhaust, the global-warming culprit, involved in shipping the product.

Even fashion-forward pinot grigio is getting into the alternative-packaging arena. I wrote last year about the good-value Botter Anna Pinot Grigio Chardonnay, which comes in a one-litre Tetra Prisma container and this year is priced at a whole dollar less ($11.85, No. 613620). There's now one in a 750-millilitre plastic bottle, Pasqua Volto Delle Venezie Pinot Grigio 2007 ($13.95, No. 064089).

Another interesting new plastic bottle on the block is Silver Leaf. The Australian line, from Vincor Canada, was made in conjunction with Hardy Wine Co. and is distinctive for its size, a full litre. Because of plastic's much narrower width, the bottles look not much bigger than their 750-millilitre glass counterparts. This not only offers more wine but overcomes a key stigma of 750-millilitre plastic bottles, which appear not to have enough wine in them.

There are three in the Silver Leaf line - shiraz, cabernet-merlot and chardonnay - and the flavour is clearly aimed at the mass market. These are not handcrafted wines that inspire talk of terroir. They are aimed at the eco-conscious, packaged with labels made from sustainable bamboo fibre and recycled materials and transported in boxes made from unbleached Kraft paper with no internal partitions.

I think the best is Silver Leaf Chardonnay 2006 ($14.95, No. 064873), medium-bodied with a taste of red apple squirted with lime juice and vanilla. It's a decent quaffing wine in a handy, unbreakable container for picnics or patio parties.

But of course, all other things being equal, the most environmentally benign wines are those made close to where you live, versus those that must be shipped from the other side of the globe. Herewith my top Canadian picks this week. Both are available direct from their respective winery boutiques and websites.

Quails' Gate Limited Release Chardonnay 2006 ($18.99, No. 377770; http://www.quailsgate.com, 1-800-420-9463 ex. 226). From the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, this excellent, full-bodied white shows tropical-fruit and pear notes, with a smoky overtone. The texture is round but with a slightly gritty, mineral-like twist for interest. Good balancing acidity.

And in Niagara, don't miss Tawse Sketches of Niagara Riesling 2007 ($18; http://www.tawsewinery.ca; 905-562-9500). This very good new bottling is crafted in the Mosel style of Germany, with moderate, off-dry sweetness, yet great balancing acidity. Light-bodied and silky, it's brimming with peach and citrus notes and a mouth-puckering, Pixy Stix-like tang on the finish.

PICK OF THE WEEK

Voga Pinot Grigio ($13.85 in Ontario, $14.99 in B.C., No. 669226. Round and smooth, it shows better concentration than a lot of lean, supercrisp pinot grigios, with a pronounced citrus character and vague note of vanilla.