ARMONK, N.Y., Dec. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and eProvenance, a company specializing in monitoring and analyzing wine shipment conditions, today announced the availability of VinAssure™ from eProvenance: a new, IBM blockchain-powered platform that offers a smarter and highly secured 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 best winemakers are not undermined by supply chain errors, misinformation or improper conditions during transit. VinAssure™ is designed to give rise to a new wine industry ecosystem that provides consumers more information at their fingertips to help assure the wines they buy meet their expectations.

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, négociants, importers, transporters, distributors, restaurants and retailers – by helping increase traceability, efficiency and profitability in the wine supply chain through a permissioned, permanent and shared record of data.

The first member of VinAssure™ is De Maison Selections, a U.S. importer of responsibly-sourced wines, cider and spirits from independent producers in Spain and France. 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.

Other wine industry members intending to join VinAssure™ include Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Export Division, the third-largest premium winery in the USA, and Maison Sichel, a Bordeaux-based négociant and winemaker for seven generations. The portfolios of these three companies can represent millions of bottles of wines moving through the global supply chain and available around the world. 

VinAssure™ uses IBM Blockchain Transparent Supply, an innovative 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.

"We believe wine communicates a strong sense of the place and the culture of those who contributed to its creation. We honor our winemakers and their goods by protecting wines through temperature-controlled transport and storage from the cellar to our customers," said André Tamers, owner of De Maison Selections. "We believe the future of the wine industry lies in verifiable provenance, transparency and traceability. VinAssure™ makes it possible for our distribution partners and end consumers to see, understand and appreciate what went into crafting the wines they buy and what it takes for us to maintain the wine's quality from the vineyard to the glass."

"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.

"We craft ultra-premium wines from Washington, Oregon and California that fully reflect the unique growing conditions and individual winemaking practices of each estate.  Our site-specific wines display unique and extraordinary character, so we want to assure those wines arrive in perfect condition whatever their destination around the globe," said Peter Click, Vice President, International, Saint Michelle Wine Estates. "VinAssure™ can help us share this compelling story with our supply chain and with our consumers."

"As a negociant and winemaker, Maison Sichel is fully committed to sustainable practices and pours every drop of skill and knowhow into its brands," said Allan Sichel, Managing Director of Maison Sichel. "VinAssure™ will amplify our efforts by making them all the more visible to our industry partners and customers."

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."

For information on IBM Blockchain Transparent Supply, please visit here.

About De Maison Selections
Founded by André Tamers in 1996, De Maison Selections is an importing company that specializes in unique, high-quality, boutique wines, ciders and spirits from Spain and France. The company strives to offer a diverse, mindful representation of the culture and history of the products it champions. De Maison Selections fosters innovation and inclusivity within its own business practices and within the beverage industry.

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. eProvenance holds trademarks and patents for its technology around the world. Find us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter @eProvenance and at www.eprovenance.com

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. IBM is an early member of Hyperledger, an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. For more information about IBM Blockchain, visit https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/ or follow us on Twitter at @ibmblockchain.

eProvenance Media Contact
Louise Domenitz
louise.domenitz@eprovenance.com

IBM Media Contact
Anthony Colucci
anthony.colucci@ibm.com

SOURCE IBM