New tech joins the fight against fake wines

In South Australia, a niche technology business is also involved in the fight to defend premium wine regions from counterfeiters around the world.

eBottli launched late last year from Adelaide with a suite of new tracking and blockchain technologies, geolocating services for bottles or containers, and unique identifier labels for winemakers.

“It guarantees the authenticity of the bottle and addresses the problem for Australian exports in places like China where about 50 percent of the wine is counterfeit,” founder Nathalie Taquet said.

“We can also connect the customer with the vineyard, they can see the story leading to the bottle arriving in a restaurant.”

eBottli is now working with 12 clients across Australia, including vineyards in McLaren Vale and the Barossa Valley.

Taquet said COVID-19 disruptions halted a project in China earlier in the year connecting a South Australian vineyard to final customers.

The plan was to have wine bottles arrive on the table in a restaurant where diners could then use smartphones to scan the label and read its Australian story of origin.

“We had some different projects not only with wine but also in fish and chemical projects to adjust the business because of COVID-19 and bushfires affecting some of the wine regions,” Taquet said.

“Now we’ve started on this project in China again. “Our business uses unique identifier bottle labels to trace the history through the supply chain and augmented reality to show consumers where they come from.”

French immigrant Taquet said a family-owned winery in the Burgundy wine region in France grew her own passion for the industry. And, after moving to Sydney two years ago with her family, Taquet was drawn to South Australia’s growing international reputation for wine and moved to Adelaide to establish eBottli eight months ago.

– Reporting by Belinda Willis.


This article was originally published in the June 2020 issue of the Australian & New Zealand Grapegrower & Winemaker.
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