Innovation in Wine

After the session with Palm Bay International, I was really intrigued by the latest innovations in the wine industry and how they were catching on. The wine industry is not known specifically for innovation - a lot of the technology that is used has been around for decades, if not centuries. Also, the artisan-ship of wine making means that embracing technology or challenging the status quo is often frowned upon.

However, there have been several interesting changes in the wine marketplace (including production, distribution and consumption). Here are some that I was able to dig up:

• Development of a Flat Wine bottle - Developed by Garcon Wines and the innovation won an award at the 2018 30th Awards for Packaging Innovation. The bottle was initially developed to solve the problem of delivery through the UK standard mail slot. Current thinking is that the new bottle shape will have applications to other products (such as spirits) and industries as well
• Source: https://www.foodandwine.com/news/garcon-flat-wine-bottle-dow-design-award

• Fiasco - A wine app that recommends the perfect bottle of wine based on occasion, not just food pairing. Users can also import additional information such as their price point to generate wine recommendations
• Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cathyhuyghe/2014/06/04/new-innovations-in-wine-technology-four-leaders-one-curveball/#7332335c526d

• Machine learning & Irrigation - In Australia, vineyards are using machine learning and drones to better water their vines to improve the output of the harvest, as well as the quality of the grapes.
• Source: https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/five-ways-technology-is-changing-the-wine-we-drink