Efficient and sustainable smart wine production technology to boost European small and medium sized wineries competitiveness.

OBJECTIVE: The general objective of the project is to scale up and digitalize SMARTWINERY solutions into an industrial demo plant (4 tonne/hour capacity) and perform a full-scale demonstration to prepare for market deployment. These developments will be based on an interregional partnership – where the Spanish and Greek innovators will integrate and test the demo plant under operational conditions while the Spanish wine producer organisation (and Greek organisations as support entities) will engage the end users and regional stakeholders in co-creation and collaboration processes.

All this will allow to make SMARTWINERY relevant for the industries and economies in the established and emerging European wine producing regions, contributing to increasing the competitiveness of the European wine industry and regional sustainability.

CALL: I3-2021-INV2a

PROJECT NUMBER: 101115013

PROJECT NAME: Efficient and sustainable smart wine production technology to boost European small and medium sized wineries competitiveness.

START DATE: 01/11/2023

FINISH DATE: 01/10/2026

ACRONYM: SMARTWINERY

This project has a budget of 3,052,896.18 euros and has received financing of 2,137,027.32 euros from the Interregional Program for Investment in Innovation (I3), a financing instrument under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Union.

For the EU wine sector to maintain its beneficial economic, environmental, and social impact as well as the position as the global leader, it must adapt to new worldwide trends. This means adapting to the new consumption habits of a younger, more digital, and environmentally aware public. Such includes a commitment to new technologies and more efficient and sustainable production methods.

However, this can be challenging for the EU small and medium-sized wineries since these still rely on traditional production methods. Such results in limited efficiencies (yields, energy consumption) and inconsistent products, making it difficult for them to keep up with the changing trends and thus to compete with larger wineries.

Thus, to remain competitive and persist in the wine sector, EU small and medium-sized producers need to reduce production costs and increase their sustainability standard while improving the quality of their wine.

SMARTWINERY interregional partnership – Pushing forward digitalization and sustainability in the wine industry.

To help the small and medium-sized producers in improving their production sustainability (economic, environmental), an interregional partnership has been established between key actors from the quadruple helix, namely, research institutions in the wine sector (UNIMURCIA), leading SMEs in wine production equipment and data-driven innovation (AGROVIN and NEUROPUBLIC) and an association with extensive network in the wine industry (PTV).

SMARTWINERY is a new range of technological and digital solutions, to increase the processing capacity and sustainability of the wineries. Through the integration of innovative processing steps and their digitalization, SMARTWINERY:

1. Improves the control of key wine parameters (evolution of fermentation, wine redox potential, SO2 levels during processing) and accelerates key stages in the production process (e.g., extraction of desired grape compounds: greater increase in phenolic compounds, polysaccharides and typical aromas of grape variety, wine stabilization during aging).

Thus, SMARTWINERY allows for doubling the processing capacity in the same facility (processing more kilograms of grapes at the same time, space savings due to a greater use of the installed deposits).

2. Requires significantly less energy to obtain equal results (about 35% less than traditional vinification)

Thus, SMARTWINERY allows for 25% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (compared to conventional methods).

3. Ensures a final product in which undesired flavours due to thermal treatments are avoided. Furthermore, SMARTWINERY set of technologies (e.g., ultrasounds, tank control) contribute to inactivating the initial microbial load which allows reducing sulphur dioxide (SO2) level in wine, substance highly used as antimicrobial and antioxidant agent but hazardous to human health and limited by Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999.

Thus, SMARTWINERY allows for production of a high-quality wine in line with the market standards.

SMARTWINERY general objective

The general objective of the project is to scale up and digitalize SMARTWINERY solutions into an industrial demo plant (4 tonne/ hour capacity) and perform a full-scale demonstration to prepare for market deployment. These developments will be based on an interregional partnership – where (i) the Spanish and Greek innovators will integrate and test the demo plant under operational conditions while (ii) the Spanish wine producer organisation (and Greek organisations as support entities) will engage the end users and regional stakeholders in co-creation and collaboration processes.

Specific Objective 1: To design the upscaled and digitalized SMARTWINERY demo plant and to demonstrate the integration of the technological solutions.

Specific Objective 2: To characterize the configuration and process variables (e.g., time, temperature, oxygenation) of SMARTWINERY to optimize production yields, energy consumption, wine quality and environmental performance.

Specific Objective 3: To ensure market adequacy of the project developments (via a participatory approach of the end users in the design of SMARTWINERY), and an interregional impact of the SMARTWINERY innovation (via regional stakeholder engagement).

Specific Objective 4: To set the necessary aspects for industrialising the production of the different components of SMARTWINERY, establishing a module-based device “on demand” with a range of processing capabilities and accessories, to meet the needs of each client.

Specific Objective 5: To ensure wide visibility of the project´s results among the key target audiences and the general public.

The SMARTWINERY project will result in a demo plant, co-created with and open to wine producers, thanks to which the solution scale-up will be user relevant, thus accelerating market uptake. Furthermore, the 22-month demonstration phase will allow for obtaining a set of parameters of the demo plant functioning at industrial scale (processing capacity of 4 tonnes/hour) – regarding the quality of the final product (density, pH, and SO2 content, aroma compounds, chromatic characteristics, and phenolic compounds). This information will give credibility to the SMARTWINERY solution and its breakthrough results, allowing smoother market entrance.

The project is led by a research organisation (UNIVERSIDAD DE MURCIA), that together with two innovating SMEs (AGROVIN and NEUROPUBLIC) supported by wine producer association (PTV) will join forces and invest resources into upscaling and digitalization of SMARTWINERY.

Thanks to this joint interregional innovation, breakthrough technology will be made directly available for:

In Spain – the regions of Castilla la Mancha and Murcia (less developed/ transition) – where smart solutions are highly needed to solve the issue of limited cost efficiency of wine production (limited quality vs. raising production costs); furthermore, in the region of Madrid (developed), the solution will support the producers of this young and upcoming region.

In Greece – the region of Attica (+extended outreach to northern Greece and Crete, all less developed/transition) – where smart solutions are needed in support of the strategic focus on high quality wine and innovation, to accelerate wine recognition of this emerging wine region.

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