Collectors’ News: March 2010 issue

A new player in Bordeaux will provide a ‘five-star’ provenance certification on every case of wine it sells. Bordeaux Provenance guarantees that all wines sold via its online portal

will reach fine wine buyers ‘in optimal condition, offering 100% traceability from the château to final destination.’

As well as sourcing ex-château wines, the company’s fine wine shipments will use Radio Frequency Identification temperature-monitoring technology, pioneered by US company eProvenance.

Once the wine has been delivered, clients will get a ‘certified guarantee of provenance’ for every monitored case.

This will not only include an independent record of the duration and temperature fluctuations of the entire shipment, but also a complete history of the wine’s previous ownership.

‘We believe this provides an all-important point of difference,’ says CEO Stephen Rouveyrol.

Meanwhile, a number of UK wine merchants, including Corney & Barrow and Berry Bros & Rudd, are also trialling eProvenance’s tracking technology.

Most recently, Berrys announced that it aims to be the first London merchant to use eProvenance’s systems to create a verified global fine wine cold chain to ensure that wine in transit is not damaged en route by temperature spikes.

According to eProvenance, if a wine experiences a temperature of 30˚C for just 1.5 days, this can degrade its colour, aroma and ageing potential.

 ‘Now viticulture and winemaking have reached the current levels of expertise, storage and shipping represent the largest challenge to the quality of wine the consumer drinks – and it is largely out of control,’ says eProvenance’s Eric Vogt.

Written by John Stimpfig