Startup Service Adds Smarts to Fine Wine

For the purposes of the current trial, says Vogt, the parties that receive the shipments of wine are asked to remove the tag from each case and send it back to eProvenance, which then downloads the temperature log and imports the data to its provenance database. In that database, the BAP tag's ID is associated with the unique ID encoded to a passive, 13.56 MHz tag ISO 15693-compliant tag attached to each bottle inside the case. These tags are supplied by EmbedTech Industries and KSW Microtec.

The passive tags are used to identify and authenticate each bottle and to link it to the case's temperature-tracking tag and thereby to all shippers, distributors or brokers that handled that bottle. Consumers or any party in each bottle's supply chain can look up the provenance for any tagged bottle by accessing the eProvenance Web site and keying in the ID number printed on the outside of the tag (which is encased in a plastic housing and adhered with a strong epoxy to the punt, or dimple at the bottom of the wine bottle. The number encoded to the inlay inside the tag is not the same number as that printed on the tag, but the two numbers are associated with each other in eProvenance's back-end database.

At the bottom of each bottle is a passive ISO 15693 tag.

Lastly, an invisible ink can be printed on the foil wrapper that covers the bottle's cork. Using a small handheld device, the ink can be read by the receiving party in order authenticate that the wine has not be removed from the bottle and replaced with a lower-quality wine.

Vogt says he has worked with nine different wineries in the Bordeaux region for the pilot project. Because not all of the 1,200 tagged cases have reached their destinations, he does not expect to have all of the temperature data collected until late summer. Thus far, be says, about 60 percent of the parties that received the wine have gone to the trouble of returning the temperature tags to eProvenance. Once the company moves beyond pilot stage and acquires a network of customers, who may range from winemakers to distributors to retailers, these customers would likely acquire the RFID readers needed to collect the data from the tags themselves, and download the data collected to the eProvenance database.

Vogt says the benefits of the eProvenance concept are threefold: traceability, authentication and a history of the wine's custody (right down to viewing the winery on Google maps and learning exactly when and where the grapes were grown, when the blend was made, etc.).

But there will be some hesitation in the wine industry to adopt the system, he says, because the added visibility into a wine's exposure to temperature also provides greater accountability from the supply chain partner responsible for the product if it becomes too hot or too cold. For that reason, Vogt has started looking at how eProvenance might also get into the business of offering insurance. "If we have enough data to understand temperature in global distribution channel, and also know which varietals are likely to be harmed at which temperature, we can offer insurance," he proposes.

It's a concept that the company plans to explore in coming weeks through meetings with experts in the wine industry and supply chain. He says at the end of the day, all parties should be interested in better, more-thorough temperature tracking of fine wines, because by identifying problem areas and finding ways to ensure product is store and transported under optimal conditions, the consumer will end up with better-tasting wines, and will want to acquire more.