The Technology That Will Power the Future Wine Industry

Like many other industries, modern winemaking benefits from technology that we didn’t always have. From the vineyard to the bottle itself, winemakers use tech to grow grapes more efficiently and keep customers more informed than ever. Here are three examples of how tech has, and will continue to improve, the modern wine industry.

Digital & AR Bottle Labels

Starting on the customer’s end, some wine brands have introduced smart labels and other digital integrations that allow users to find out more about their wine. Thanks to the internet and smartphones, many wine bottles come with QR codes that show the bottle’s origins, its reviews, and pairing suggestions.

Other brands, most famously 19 Crimes, use similar technology for AR integration. They allow the customer to see a retelling of a true story that led to the founding of Australia by wayward convicts. This kind of interactive storytelling was made popular by the internet, where games are used to explore real and fictional settings. This can be seen across the iGaming sector, where users can log into a UK online casino to play games inspired by mythology and other iconic stories. For example, the Rainbow Riches slot is based on Irish leprechaun myths about a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow. As more people pursue these interactive experiences, it makes sense that even real-world industries will try to integrate them into their products. A similar thing is happening with luxury brands, which use labels and blockchain integration to authenticate their products.

More Precision Viticulture

On the vineyard, technology is widely used to maximize grape yields and ensure that our vineyards can keep up with a growing wine clientele. This kind of precision farming is called precision viticulture, which involves the use of weather detection systems, GPS, and other sensors that ensure top-tier soil and vine health.

This suite of technology has been used for years to level up the world’s leading wine-growing regions. Specific use cases include GPS to map out a vineyard and more efficiently plan vine-planting efforts. Similar tech called digital elevation models (DEM) map the area’s topography for similar reasons, while specialized soil surveys make sure a vineyard’s soil stays in ideal condition. Precision viticulture can even include environmental sensors that monitor humidity and solar radiation levels, both of which can subtly affect the terroir.

Space Aging Wine

Aging wine in space sounds like something out of fiction, but we have already sent wine to the International Space Station (ISS) for that exact purpose. In late 2019, an unusual experiment saw researchers store Bordeaux on the ISS to study how weightlessness influences the aging process. The result was that the bottles seemed to accelerate in aging, by a factor of one to three years.

As you’d expect, some of that Pétrus 2000 wine found its way into Christie’s auction house where it was put up for $1 million. Sending bottles of wine to space is never going to catch on with the average vineyard, it’s way too expensive, but replicating the conditions of space could provide a fast-aging solution. Vintners could offer three-year-aged wine that, by taste, is decade-aged. This could provide a richer experience for those on a budget while making genuine aged wine even more profitable for vendors.

These three technologies have already made their mark on the wine-growing industry, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon. As the industry explores ways to improve every step of the process – the growing, aging, and packaging of wine – both vendors and consumers should be excited about how future technology will make wine more productive, profitable, and exciting than it has been before.