“If you try to open the bottle, the circuit is broken and you know that no one can take that label and use it somewhere else,” explains Gaetano. Crurated’s challenge, he continues, was to build a physical logistics system that integrated seamlessly with tracking blockchain.
“We can do it because we control supply and demand: we know the producers and the end customers. If you start adding more layers, the problem becomes exponentially complex. We are the only ones capable of doing it on a global scale because we work directly with the customers and There’s no one else in the way.”
It is a highlight, because the “passport” endorsed by blockchain for each wine it only works if everyone handling the bottle is subscribed to it. For this same reason, Gaetano will not introduce wines that do not come directly from the producer into the Crurated system, but he says he is considering the possibility of syndicating his technology with them.
“One of the best producers in Burgundy asked us if they could use our labels on all their bottles. But now, the idea is that you only take out the bottle when you want to drink the wine. If not, it doesn’t make sense, because you’re taking out the bottle the perfect chain of provenance.
Gaetano admits that, strictly speaking, the Crurated system does not prevent fraudsters from changing the contents of a bottle (if they can circumvent the NFC neck tag), but he says that reliable authentication involves never leaving the whereabouts of the bottle unknown. came.
If you need to know if a wine is authentic, you will need a completely different technological solution. Some wineries have employed advanced printing techniques for their labels, embedding holograms and printing with invisible inks, but the real prize is a process of authenticating what’s inside the bottle.
Various approaches
The number of different parameters that must be checked (the age of the wine, its place of origin, its chemical composition) means that the problem has been attacked in different ways. A team from the University of Adelaide managed to demonstrate that matrix absorbance-transmission and excitation-emission spectroscopy (A-TEEM), essentially a very sophisticated scan of a sample, could reliably determine the harvest year of a selection of Shiraz wines, also accurately associating each of them with a specific sub-region of the Barossa Valley area.
Likewise, various studies have shown that nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, which works similarly to an MRI scanner, can detect different levels of deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, and different amino acids in wine, allowing scientists to identify different vintages and types.
The terroir of a vineyard can be “identified” based on rainfall, since it is known that rainwater from different areas is chemically different: A 2007 study showed that analyzing “stable isotopes” of the water used to make wine could accurately distinguish between different regions of California and Oregon.
Not easy
Perhaps surprisingly, even the most reputable experts acknowledge that it may be impossible to detect a fake by smell or taste, no matter how nuanced the palette. But where the human nose has been defeated, a machine can still sniff out the truth. A team of academics from several institutions published in 2023 an article in which they showed that, using a method called gas chromatography to analyze the aromatic profiles of 80 Bordeaux wines, they could distinguish between vintages from seven specific estates on the left and right banks of the river.
The olfactory route is already used in other sectors, with proven results in detecting inauthentic perfumes and even fake sports shoes. Applying it to wine makes obvious sense, says Tristan Rousselle, founder and CEO of the French company Aryballe, a specialist in this field. But it also presents unique challenges.
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