Winegrid – SME instrument phase 1

Abstract: Vinification is the process of turning grapes into wine. Wine production is directly linked to vinification monitoring by measuring certain critical parameters. Buying the testing equipment is not an option for most winemakers: a spectrometer for wine applications can go up to €150k (high CAPEX) and requires highly qualified operating personnel (high OPEX). Therefore, the most common methods used by EU producers for vinification monitoring are sampling and offline testing which also still involve enormous costs to the wine producers. Indeed, in a worldwide market worth €261 billion, winemakers are spending yearly €667 million in Europe alone for vinification technologies. Winegrid® is a real time and remote monitoring platform that will allow winemakers to have an eye inside the wine vat. Winegrid is a smart solution based on a network of innovative sensors placed in a container (barrel, tank, press) during the vinification process of wine. It is capable of providing, for the first time ever, real-time analysis and control the 5 crucial vinification parameters (level, colour, turbidity, density and temperature), sending information directly to a specially built online platform. It is the internet of things (IoT) for wine production. This project fills a highly desired need in Europe by revolutionising the vinification process. Our commercialisation plan is to sell to European winemakers that want to reduce costs, improve efficiency and the quality of their wine. For this project, we intend optimise our equipment through miniaturisation and gain a greater understanding of different market segments within our target markets. Following this in phase 2 we plan to demonstrate our product’s benefits in a large scale in order to reduce the entry barriers in a traditional field as is winemaking.

Project title: Winegrid – Fibre optic sensor that can be placed inside a barrel or vat to give real time analytics of the critical parameters for vinification.
Project number: 832214
Call (part) identifier: H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1
Topic:EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020 SME instrument
Objective: Elaboration of a comprehensive and sound business plan, identification and contact with business and/or technical partners, elaboration of an industrialization development plan
Beneficiary: WATGRID, LDA.

Starting date: 01-11-2018
Duration: 4 months
Total costs: 71429.00 €
EU contribution: 50000.00 €

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 832214.