Main innovation trends for winegrowers: from winemaking to distribution

If Paris has become the wine capital with the Wine Paris trade show held from 11 to 13 February, France is the world innovation capital for the wine industry.

We wanted to carry out this study to enhance the dynamism of the wine industry in France. Too often, we hear that the wine market is sclerotic, that it has not experienced (or even can't experience?) its digital revolution... in short, that innovation has no place in this traditional sector.

Within the framework of the Wine Paris exhibition, which aims to make Paris the world wine capital, we felt it was important to show that France had a major role to play in terms of innovation for the wine industry.

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

Within the framework of this study, we have identified nearly 30 companies that have made service to winegrowers their main activity, divided into 5 main categories:

• The suppliers of raw material
• Vine and winery support tools (vine monitoring, winegrowers' decision support and maintenance of the vine and winemaking equipment),
• Tools to help manage the estate and assist in marketing
• The live distribution players in the field
• Tools to assist in the marketing of the field

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

Platforms to enable winegrowers to supply themselves online with raw materials.

These platforms, likeAgriconomyandMeshectares.comThe new products, which are available on the market, allow winegrowers to obtain both raw materials (phytosanitary products) and agricultural equipment (tractors, equipment) with an extremely wide range of products since they combine the offer of most of the suppliers in their market.

The company Grouper Vitiagri plays the collective card and offers a group purchasing service between farmers and winegrowers with the aim of optimising costs. Comparateur Agricole is also part of this approach by offering the purchase and resale of raw materials.

These suppliers of raw material seek above all to fluidify and simplify the purchase of material, aided by a system of rating products and tools that will reassure the winegrowers.

Technological tools for winemaking and cellar maintenance

Current innovations in winemaking and vineyard monitoring involve the use of modern technologies such as data collection to guide winemakers' decisions. The development of these innovations responds to a real trend within the wine estates: the eco-responsibility of wine producers with a clear increase in the number of vineyards undergoing conversion. This marked trend is leading winegrowers to a radical change in their working methods and technical itineraries.

The tools dedicated to vine monitoring

The production of a quality wine depends on a healthy vine. Some of the innovative players have set up systems for analysing the state of health of the vines and vats, others have set up tools for collecting data on the state of the vines to enable winegrowers to intervene at a key moment.

Concerning the sanitary state of the vines,Chouetteand Scanopy have set up measurement and monitoring tools to analyse the state of the vines and regulate the winegrower's interventions.

Tools dedicated to the maintenance of the vine and winemaking equipment

Weeding robots, that's what Naio Technologie and its partners have created.Vitibot. Innovation? The vine is a special type of land on which traditional agricultural equipment cannot be used. This is why these two companies have designed robots capable of passing between the vines to remove weeds and keep the vines in shape.

In the same logic, DiiMotion has created an ecological solution for spraying vines and UV Boosting a service to stimulate plants by controlling their exposure to UV light. In the winery, R-tech Oenologie has set up connected tanks and barrels to assist in the vinification and maturing process by controlling the hygiene of the equipment in particular.

Decision support tools for winegrowers

The Big Data for the vine 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,WeenatSencrop or WeatherMeasures.

These innovations at the service of precision agriculture allow the winegrowers to adapt to bad weather for example and to adjust the interventions. The same applies to the Carbon Bee company, which opts for data collection by cameras and aerial drones.

Tools and software to assist in the management, development and marketing of the winery.

In order to limit the time spent in the offices dedicated to the administrative management of the domain, many companies have set up administrative software for accounting, management and stock monitoring in order to simplify the management of the domain on a larger scale.

Tools to help the administrative and commercial management of the domain

Bewease, Vinosoft and PrimusSoft have put their expertise at the service of integrated domain and commercial management. Indeed, these companies allow to gather in the same tool the stocks of bottles, the accounting follow-up or the commercial management. In the same logic of simplifying marketing,Vinovaesimplifies the tasting thanks to a sampling system of 75cl bottle in 2cl, without losing the quality of the wine. The young company La vie du Vin has set up a system for tracing vintages so that winegrowers can track the route of their bottles from the cellar to the supplier (wine merchants, hotels, restaurants and grocery stores) or to the table of the individual consumer.WineServices allows the optimization of the distribution of fine wines with a precise view of where they are distributed around the world.

There are also platforms dedicated to the financing of the wine sector such asWineFundingand FundoVino or Miimosa. For the latter, the objective is then to support local producers in two forms: MiiMOSA (participatory financing in the form of a grant with counterpart (up to €70,000) and participatory loan (up to €200,000) or MiiMOSA transition (agricultural, food and energy transition projects): participatory financing in the form of loans or bonds (up to €1,000,000).

Tools to assist in Business Development of the domain

The 1st Wine Tourism Conference, held in Paris in November 2018, contributed to the development of this rapidly growing sector. The associated objective is to promote the French wine territories and to promote them at the European and international level, as Hervé Novelli underlined last November.

Many players have launched themselves in recent years into wine tourism in order to allow winemakers to easily propose, through online platforms, wine tourism activities directly at the estate.

After launching a direct distribution service in the field for professionals and individuals, Les Grappes, through the purchase ofVinizoslaunched its wine tourism platform last November. Rue des Vignerons andOenotourisme.comare part of the same trend and offer, through their web platforms, live reservations from the estate for cellar visits and tastings.

The estate's direct distribution platforms

Current innovations in the wine sector also involve the creation of market places (or marketplace) to help winegrowers in the direct distribution of their products. In accordance with the scope of our study, we have decided to highlight only those players who favour the direct winegrower and the short circuit.

Since 2014, Les Grappes and Twil (The Wine I Love) put in relation winegrowers harvesting with professionals and individuals for the first one and individuals exclusively for the second one. Actiwine completes this panorama by focusing on the professional market.

This overview of innovation trends at the service of winegrowers allows us to highlight a real dynamic in the wine industry. Numerous jobs (at least 400) have been created by these different companies, which are part of a real underlying trend: innovation is a vector of opportunities for players in the wine industry. The players in the agricultural sector have understood this, and Agritech has played a major role in every professional event. An example to follow?