Key innovation trends serving winemakers: from winemaking to distribution

While Paris has become the capital of wine with the Wine Paris trade fair which took place from February 11 to 13, France is the world capital of innovation for the wine industry.

We wanted to conduct this study to highlight the dynamism of the wine industry in France. Too often, we hear that the wine market is stagnant, that it has not experienced (or even cannot experience?) its digital revolution… in short, that innovation has no place in this traditional sector.

In the context of the Wine Paris trade fair, which aims to make Paris the world capital of wine, it seemed important to us to show that France had a major role to play in terms of innovation for the wine industry.

This infographic proves that a large number of players have brought innovations by creating cutting-edge technological tools to help winegrowers in their work, both in the vineyards, in the cellars and for the distribution of their products.

As part of this study, we identified nearly 30 companies whose main activity is providing services to winegrowers, divided into 5 main categories:

• Raw material suppliers
• Tools to assist in the vineyard and winery (vine monitoring, decision support for winegrowers, and maintenance of the vineyard and winemaking equipment),
• Tools to assist with estate management and marketing
• Direct distribution players in the field
• Tools to help with marketing in the field

The criteria for inclusion in this study: being a French company that is less than 5 years old and whose service or innovation is aimed at winegrowers.

Platforms to allow winegrowers to source raw materials online

These platforms, such as Agriconomie and Meshectares.com , allow winegrowers to source both raw materials (plant protection products) and agricultural equipment (tractors, equipment) with an extremely wide range of offerings since they aggregate the offerings of most suppliers in their market.

The company Grouper Vitiagri focuses on collective action, offering a group purchasing service for farmers and winegrowers to optimize costs. Comparateur Agricole also operates within this framework, offering the purchase and resale of raw materials.

These raw material suppliers are primarily seeking to streamline and simplify the purchase of materials, aided by a product rating system and tools that will reassure winegrowers.

Technological tools for winemaking and cellar maintenance

Current innovations in winemaking and vineyard management rely on modern technologies such as data collection to guide winemakers' decisions. The development of these innovations reflects a fundamental trend within the wine industry: the growing eco-responsibility of wine producers, with a significant increase in vineyards undergoing conversion. This pronounced trend is leading winemakers to radically change their working methods and technical approaches.

Tools dedicated to vineyard monitoring

The production of quality wine depends on healthy vines. Among the innovative players, some have implemented systems for analyzing the health of the vines and tanks, while others have developed tools for collecting data on the condition of the vines to allow winemakers to intervene at a key moment.

Regarding the health of the vines, Chouette and Scanopy have put in place measurement and monitoring tools in order to analyze the condition of the vine and regulate the interventions of the winegrowers.

Tools dedicated to vineyard maintenance and winemaking equipment

Weed-removing robots are the brainchild of Naio Technologie and Vitibot . Their innovation? Vineyards are a unique environment where traditional agricultural equipment cannot be used. That's why these two companies designed robots capable of navigating between the vines to remove weeds and maintain the vines' health.

Following this same logic, DiiMotion has created an eco-friendly solution for spraying vines and UV Boosting, a service that stimulates plants by controlling their exposure to UV light. In the winery, R-tech Oenologie has installed connected tanks and barrels to assist with winemaking and aging, notably by monitoring equipment hygiene.

Decision-making tools for winegrowers

Big Data for vineyards has arrived! Some companies have set up connected sensors to collect external information, this is the case in particular for meteorological tools such as Meteus , StartUp of the Isagri group, Weenat , Sencrop or WeatherMeasures .

These innovations in precision agriculture allow winegrowers to adapt to weather conditions and adjust their interventions accordingly. The same is true for the company Carbon Bee , which uses aerial cameras and drones to collect data.

Tools and software to assist in the management, development and marketing of the wine estate

To limit the time spent in offices dedicated to the administrative management of the estate, many companies have implemented administrative software for accounting, management and inventory tracking in order to simplify estate management on a larger scale.

Tools to assist with the administrative and commercial management of the domain

Bewease , Vinosoft , and PrimusSoft have combined their expertise to provide integrated estate and sales management. These companies enable users to consolidate bottle inventory, accounting, and sales management into a single tool. Following the same principle of simplifying marketing, Vinovae streamlines tastings with a 2cl sampling system for 75cl bottles, without compromising wine quality. The young company La Vie du Vin has implemented a wine tracing system, allowing winemakers to track their bottles from the cellar to suppliers (wine shops, hotels, restaurants, and grocery stores) or to the consumer's table. WineServices optimizes the distribution of fine wines by providing a precise overview of where they are distributed worldwide.

There are also platforms dedicated to financing the wine sector such as WineFunding and FundoVino or Miimosa . For the latter, the objective is to support local producers in two ways: MiiMOSA (crowdfunding in donation with reward (up to €70,000) and participatory loan (up to €200,000) or MiiMOSA transition (agricultural, food and energy transition projects): crowdfunding in loan or bond (up to €1,000,000).

Business development support tools for the field

The first Wine Tourism Conference, held in Paris in November 2018, helped to promote this rapidly developing sector. The associated objective is to promote French wine regions and raise their profile at the European and international levels, as Hervé Novelli emphasized last November.

Many players have entered the wine tourism sector in recent years to allow winemakers to easily offer wine tourism activities directly at the estate through online platforms.

After launching a direct distribution service from the estate for professionals and individuals, Les Grappes , through the acquisition of Vinizos , launched its wine tourism platform last November. Rue des Vignerons and Oenotourisme.com are following this same trend and offer direct bookings from the estate for cellar tours and tastings through their web platforms.

The direct distribution platforms of the domain

Current innovations in the wine sector also include the creation of marketplaces to help winemakers distribute their products directly. In accordance with the scope of our study, we have decided to highlight only those players who prioritize direct sales from winemakers and short supply chains.

Since 2014, Les Grappes and Twil (The Wine I Love) have connected winegrowers with professionals and individuals (for the former) and individuals exclusively (for the latter). Actiwine completes this landscape by focusing on the professional market.

This overview of innovation trends serving winemakers highlights a real dynamism within the wine industry. Numerous jobs (at least 400) have been created by these various companies, reflecting a genuine underlying trend: innovation is a driver of opportunities for stakeholders in the wine sector. Those involved in the agricultural sector have clearly understood this, giving Agritech a prominent place at every professional event. An example to follow?