In vino veritas - wine in the digital age

Are you a Wine-Lover? Most probably you think yes, because you drink a lot of wine. But did you drink 75 bottles last year? Well, your peers from the Vatican did. Surprised? Maybe not ?

However, if you are a millennial, chances are high that you were somewhere close and in fact, the wine consumption amongst them is increasing. This could be due to the reported health benefits or simply because it makes you feel good and wine is just so much more emotionally fulfilling than other drinks.  Whatever the reason behind, millennials are playing an important role in changing the winemaking industry. And it’s not just consuming more but also the way of consuming. They want to have everything now and care much more about the quality of ingredients than previous generations which has led to a growth in organic, bio and vegan wines. Also, being online all the time, they expect to find all the information they need with a few clicks or swipes.

So, whether they like it or not, it’s time for wine producers to move into the digital age. And we at DT have some great news for them as our colleagues from Cosmote in Greece are pioneers in this area. A “Smart Wine” solution developed by the start-up ISTMOS (with the support of hub:raum) and running on NB-IOT technology is being implemented in Northern Greece. The idea is to monitor every bottle from the winery to the end consumer to ensure the quality of the wine. Sensors connected to Cosmote’s NB-IoT network transmit data on temperature, humidity and luminosity and gives the restaurants and supermarkets who take delivery of the wine peace of mind that the precious cargo has not been mis-treated. The data can be accessed and tracked through a mobile app by scanning the QR code on each bottle. As wine enthusiasts, we can even imagine combining the information with more details about the wine character or specifics about the year of production. This would make it the perfect wine app for a generation that wants an app for everything.    

The NB-IoT pilot is implemented with the participation of Kyr-Yianni, a popular Greek winery in Naoussa, as well as a wine distributor and selected restaurants in Thessaloniki. Involving the whole value chain is important to guarantee that each bottle is treated with the love and care it deserves <3. And this way you can be sure not to drink any cheap fake wine which is estimated to account for about 20% of the wine market – at least in the fine wine category.

Now in case you are wondering - why Greece? It may not be the first country to pop up in your mind when thinking about wine. But that may well change, because Greece produces a high variety of good wine. Greek producers take enormous pride in their own grapes with their highly distinctive characters (~77 varieties). As a matter of fact, the best-known good-quality red wine grape is the age worthy Xinomavro (literally means ‘sour-black’) of Naoussa and exactly where Cosmote Greece is testing the smart wine solution.

As we are rolling out NB-IOT technology across our footprint in Europe, similar projects can be implemented in other wine producing countries. Being wine experts ?, we could imagine some potential for big producers in the Mosel region in Germany, or maybe Balaton region in Hungary? Who will be next?

We hope that we have inspired you to join us and disrupt the wine industry.

Remember, life is too short to drink bad wine ?

 LAM