With 900 exhibit booths, this year’s Unified Wine & Grape Symposium showcased the highest number of exhibitors ever. Among them were many first time exhibitors, and as usual, several companies seized the opportunity at the wine industry’s largest US gathering to introduce their newests products, services and innovations. If you didn’t attend or missed them in the crowds, here are five interesting finds from the trade show floor.
Boisé Absolu
Boisé continues to expand its lineup of premium oak products ranging from their chips to staves to barrel inserts and now their new natural aqueous oak extract, Absolu. The launch includes four different products, each contributing unique qualities to the wine. Winemakers have the flexibility to blend these products, tailoring them to achieve the specific wine profiles they desire.
As with their other products, the Boisé Absolu range is 100% natural oak extracts made in France and created with a focus on precision and consistency, so that the winemaker can know exactly what to expect. It can be used to refresh barrels, accelerate aging and achieve consistent results, or as a finishing touch enhancing the flavor complexity of a wine.
Bay Cities – Eco Vino
Bay Cities is a first time exhibitor at Unified, but is bringing an innovation tailored to the shipping needs of the industry with their 100% sustainable EcoVino wine shipping box. This packaging features compostable foam derived from seafood industry waste and other food waste, plus recycled corrugated cardboard. The compostable foam and recyclable cardboard not only provides effective protection during shipping but also contributes to environmental sustainability, all while maintaining an appealing look.
Verallia – Bordelaise Air
Verallia is the third-largest global producer of glass packaging for beverages and food products, and they are invested in a sustainable future for glass packaging, including how glass is produced, reused and recycled. With the Bordelaise Air, they have designed one of the lightest Bordelaise bottles ever while still preserving the iconic aesthetic contours.
The 750 ml Bordelaise Air weighs only 300 grams. The creation of this bottle is a significant design and engineering feat that also requires mastery of glass quality and industrial processes to produce. However, the effort pays off with reduced CO2 emissions throughout the supply chain, offering wineries an opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint without sacrificing the aesthetics of their packaging.
Gusmer CyFlow™ Cube 6V2m
Gusmer Enterprises has a history of partnering with excellent producers of lab equipment and bringing the most advanced equipment to the beverage industry. Their agreement with Sysmex America continues that tradition, offering the CyFlow™ Cube 6V2m for processing use in the fermented beverage industry.
The CyFlow™ Cube 6V2m is a compact benchtop flow cytometer for microbial analyses, fermentation control, research purposes, particle analysis, and cell concentration reporting. It is highly accurate, does not require advanced expertise to operate, and microbial counts are obtained within minutes instead of days.
Gusmer has transitioned to using the CyFlow for their own analysis, and wineries can now also benefit from the rapid detection of microbes like Brettanomyces bruxellensis in their own labs for faster and more cost-effective assurance of quality in their wine production.
Verdi
Although Verdi is a relatively young company, making only its second appearance at Unified, its founders bring a wealth of experience from past research in precision agriculture with Google. Their unique offering stands out as the first commercially-viable technology for variable rate irrigation and fertigation in specialty crops.
By installing smart devices along the irrigation lines, dividing vineyard blocks into smaller zones based on vigor maps and soil type variation, Verdi’s system gives growers the flexibility to increase irrigation in areas of low vigor while restricting them in areas of high vigor. The result is a more uniform, high-quality crop produced across the entire block.
This more precise application of automated irrigation helps growers save on labor costs and water consumption while also enhancing overall productivity and quality.
By Kim Badenfort
