Vinitaly: innovation is the union of wine and tech

A few days ago ended Vinitaly, an international wine and spirits fair that is held every year in Verona and that this year was celebrating its 50^th anniversary. An important moment, full of special guests, records and international visitors.
100 thousands square meters of exposition, 4.100 exhibitors that were coming from more than 30 countries and a 23% increase of accredited foreign buyers. So the numbers seem positive, exhibitors and visitors seem satisfied and also, new products were presented…

CORAVIN: the taste of wine

Joe Bastianich described it saying “Coravin has allowed me to elevate the dining experience at my restaurants, offering tastes and glasses of countless wines that you’d otherwise never expect to see sold by the glass, without any compromise in wine quality or waste.” Coravin is a system that allows you to preserve and pour wine without uncorking the bottle. How?
Greg Lambert, a nuclear physicist that was tired of opening bottles and never taste them again, invented this the gadget. In three simple steps it is possible to taste wine and then put it back in the cellar. You need to insert a very thin needle in the cork and the bottle starts being pressurized with argon, a harmless gas that doesn’t damage the taste of the wine. Once we pour the wine, it’s enough to remove the needle from the cork, that is sealed back automatically, avoiding the oxidation process to start. So now you can put your wine back in the cellar and taste it again weeks or months later.

FRESH: the temperature of wine

Italians presented something too, and Nando Salemme, patron of Abraxas, a tavern in Pozzuoli, amazed everyone with Fresh. An innovative patent that will start a revolution when it comes to wine tasting. Fresh is a seau à glace that has been transformed into a thermal stabilizer that keeps the wine temperature constant. It’s easy and it works with ice cubes that thanks to an aluminum band with high thermal conductivity create a perfect waterproof fresh container: wine will keep the ideal temperature and you eliminate the inconvenient of the typical ice bucket that covers your bottle with water.

Wine and tech keep influencing each other, through innovative solutions and experiments. But surely all the new designs seen in Verona, forewarn a transformation phase in the Food&Beverage industry that will give us a lot of surprises…