Clare Valley’s Grosset Wines is piloting new Enseal technology to combat international wine fraud

Manufacturers are testing technologies aimed at giving consumers peace of mind that the wine they are drinking is actually the wine they bought.

Jeffrey Grosset, owner of Grosset Wines in South Australia, created Enseal – a product to combat wine fraud which he says is a significant problem in the industry.

It’s not the first time the company has been recognized as a ‘pioneer’ for improving the quality of wines from its Clare Valley base, some 100km north of Adelaide.

The region’s winemakers, including Mr. Grosset, were hailed as the leaders of the cork-to-screwcap movement more than two decades ago.

“As Australian winemakers, we’re into innovation and quality,” he said.

“That’s certainly what screw caps were all about, and that’s what this latest innovation is all about.

So how does Enseal work?

Consumers then use their phones to hover over the cap, and essentially the chip confirms that the wine and label match.

Although Enseal is not yet commercially available, the technology is being tested in Australia and the UK.

“It has been patented internationally and we are in talks with two of the largest screw cap manufacturers in the world,” he said.

The chip will also allow wineries to move away from manual testing and towards a digitized process.

Mr Grosset said the need for product integrity is now more critical than ever.

“The amount of fraud that’s happening not just in Australian wine but everywhere is quite significant and probably a lot higher than people realize.”

What exactly is wine fraud?

Wine fraud can be accomplished in three ways: refilling empty labeled bottles with unrelated wine, adjusting minor label details, or labeling bottles entirely with misrepresented varietal, region, or vintage information.

Mr Grosset said it is difficult to measure the extent to which wine fraud in Australian wines occurs internationally.

“We’re lucky in Australia because one of the advantages of screw caps is that they make wine more difficult to counterfeit,” he said.

Technology has several advantages

He said Enseal would also give producers the opportunity to connect with consumers and share information about the wine.

This could be a timeline from when the grapes are harvested to when they arrive at their international destination.

More specifically, information such as precipitation dates and hours of sunshine could also be added.

Mr Grosset said the acquisition of Enseal is not an expensive process, particularly when weighed against the value of the wine itself.

“In a way we’re trying to get people used to just taking out their phones and checking that it’s what it says on it and it hasn’t been opened.”

Mr Grosset said that unlike a QR code, which could be easily photocopied, the chip was linked to an immutable system of record that could not be replicated.

Winegrowers must protect their “reputation”.

Travis Fuller, general manager of Kilikanoon Wines at Clare Valley, said he is excited about the advances Enseal can bring to the wine industry.

“It’s the next evolution in screw caps that Clare Valley essentially pioneered,” he said.

Mr Fuller said counterfeiting wine is easy and if consumers were aware of it, they would want product security.

“It’s pretty common.”

Mr Fuller said it was up to Australia to protect the “great reputation” of its wines.

But, he said, the new technology would put an end to fraud and give producers valuable information about their wine markets.

“With this technology you could now get to the point where you know when someone is buying your wine in a shop in Wimbledon in the UK,” said Mr Fuller.