“What the Tech?!” with Winely
Being in the #winetech game with our connected packaging solution, it’s safe to say the team at Cellr love talking innovation in the wine industry- and we think you will too. In this installment of “What the Tech?!” we got chatting with our friend Abbe Hyde, Founder and CTO of New Zealand #winetech company, Winely.
Tell us about you and your company?
At Winely we’re insanely obsessed with helping winemakers maintain wine quality. We’ve been privileged enough to use and build exceptional technology in the biotech industry. We’re passionate about technology and wine. For us that starts with having the data required to understand the fermentation process and the ability to make decisions on that data to optimize the end wine.
What is your winetech?
Winely provides real-time fermentation analysis. Our IOT samples the wine using 16 sensors – helping provide data on fermentation rate, fermentation health, vulnerability and other data insights. We provide in real-time, information that is normally collected manually from the tank.
This enables the winemaker to respond quickly to any potential problems in the ferment and to deeply understand how the wine is progressing.
Where is it used?
The first wineries using our technology were in Central Otago but now it is in more than 5 wine regions across Aus and NZ and very excitingly, our tech heads to Napa for the coming vintage!
Why did you decide to create it?
Our founders are biotechnologists, data scientists and engineers. Originally Winely was based on research funded by NZWine into understanding volatile substances and end wine quality. Conversations with over 100 winemakers across the world led us to understand that the commercial applications of this technology were limited, while wineries were very interested in having more data and more deeply understanding fermentation it is difficult to achieve under current practices. In short, not enough time in the day to collect the data required. That was when we set about looking to automate some of the daily measurements needed.
Do you have a particular case study / success story you can share about a customer?
Our customers get one chance a year to turn a grape into the perfect wine – we love being there for them through this, especially through the vintage when everything under the sun can and will happen. It’s an exciting process.
We’re most proud of helping them catch and intervene in a wine early before it runs off spec. You can hear it in the voice of the winemaker when they talk about it. It’s avoiding a catastrophe that’s really exciting.
You can find out more about Winely on their website, or get in touch with them on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.