IBM and eProvenance, a company specializing in monitoring and analyzing wine shipment conditions, recently announced the availability of VinAssure, an IBM blockchain-powered platform that offers a smart and secure way to track wines as they move through distribution from vineyard to consumer. By encouraging transparency, accountability and the rapid exchange of data, VinAssure helps ensure the exacting methods of the world’s winemakers are not undermined by supply chain errors, misinformation or improper conditions during transit.

VinAssure runs on IBM Cloud and is built on IBM Blockchain Transparent Supply, which is designed to use advanced technologies including blockchain, AI and cloud to optimize outcomes for all participants. With VinAssure, this group includes wine producers, negotiants, importers, transporters, distributors, restaurants and retailers by helping increase traceability in the wine supply chain through a permanent and shared record of data. 

As VinAssure membership grows, supply chain members and consumers will be able to access information spanning from the vineyard through transport and delivery, which is validated and stored on the blockchain. Using existing identifiers, such as a QR code on the bottle, consumers can learn, for example, about the wine’s provenance and flavor profiles, or if it meets certification standards for organic, biodynamic or sustainability practices.

VinAssure uses IBM Blockchain Transparent Supply, an offering from IBM that enables organizations to rapidly build out their own sustainable blockchain-based ecosystem for improved supply chain operations, to promote transparency and collaboration and to create a permanent record of the history and lifecycle of physical and digital assets.

“No one wants to open a bottle of wine and discover it’s been cooked. When the supply chain fails to maintain proper temperature conditions, that’s precisely what can happen,” said Robin Grumman-Vogt, CEO of eProvenance. “VinAssure is designed to bring collaboration and clarity to an often-chaotic supply chain. The sensitivity of the product, the number of actors, the complex logistics challenges and a convoluted patchwork of regulations across the USA and from country to country, are all factors that play into the need for a wine industry ecosystem.”

The wine industry is complex and interconnected yet lacks the mechanisms to optimize its supply chains. There are also numerous and disparate regulations that a global industry ecosystem has the capacity to address.

eProvenance is an established wine industry technology innovator—its proprietary, scientifically-based algorithm determines if wine is still fresh or if quality may have been compromised, not just whether inappropriate temperatures have been encountered, and the resulting eProvenance Score (0-100) clearly indicates if there are any changes in wine quality. eProvenance temperature monitoring services and the eProvenance Score are an integral part of VinAssure™, providing critical data on the quality of wine shipments from origin to end consumer.

“Blockchain is the ideal solution for bringing transparency to a supply chain as complicated as that of the wine industry, which involves numerous participants and where needs vary depending on the destination of the shipment,” according to Raj Rao, General Manager IBM Blockchain Platforms. “Having an immutable digital record of transactions and conditions simplifies process and represents the future of moving sensitive goods. It also provides the end consumer with greater information that the wine they purchased tastes as the winemaker intended and reflects the immense care that went into producing that wine.”

About eProvenance

A leader in the monitoring and analysis of wine shipment conditions, eProvenance offers innovative services to monitor sensitive goods at the container, pallet and case level. With solutions for monitoring shipment temperature, humidity, shock and geolocation to fit a wide range of needs and budgets, eProvenance has collected millions of data points for nearly 400 producers, 300 importers and 200 transporters in 65 countries. eProvenance delivers clear, actionable insights, which our clients use to assess the performance of their global distribution channels, assure quality and asset value, verify provenance, and make analytically informed decisions about shipments to protect their brand. The company has offices in the USA and France, and works with producers, importers, transporters and wine merchants globally.

About IBM Blockchain
IBM is recognized as the leading enterprise blockchain provider. The company's research, technical and business experts have broken barriers in transaction processing speeds, developed the most advanced cryptography to secure transactions, and are contributing millions of lines of open source code to advance blockchain for businesses. IBM is the leader in open-source blockchain solutions built for the enterprise. Since 2016, IBM has worked with hundreds of clients across financial services, supply chain, government, retail, digital rights management and healthcare to implement blockchain applications, and operates a number of networks running live and in production. The cloud-based IBM Blockchain Platform delivers the end-to-end capabilities that clients need to quickly activate and successfully develop, operate, govern and secure their own business networks.