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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Aveine

Aveine Launches New Lower-Cost Connected, Essential Wine Aerator

Aveine, which promises to help you enjoy your wine more thanks to tiny air bubbles, announced its new, lower cost Essential wine aerator today.

Aveine’s aeration system has two components. The hardware is the aerator that plugs into the top of an open wine bottle and injects tiny bubbles into the wine as you pour. Then there is the connected mobile app that you use to scan a wine label. The app identifies the type of wine and, based on that information, tells the aerator exactly how much air to add as you pour the wine.

This precise aeration, according to the company, means you don’t have to wait for the wine to “breathe” after opening a bottle. You’ll also get a more rounded wine taste with more flavor.

The first generation of the Aveine, released back in 2018, isn’t cheap, costing $449. That’s a lot of money for a bunch of tiny bubbles. Though, if you are a collector or someone who is really into their wine, that might seem like a fair deal.

The rest of us, however, probably wouldn’t spend that kind of scratch for our $12 bottle of pinot. With its lower cost, the new Essential aerator is a play to reach a wider audience.

Like its more expensive predecessor, the Essential also offers precise aeration as well as connection with the app for automatic adjustments, according to press materials sent to The Spoon.

However, the Essential is more limited in its aeration scale (the number of aerated hours the device replicates), and has a shorter free trial (30 days versus 60) and warranty (one year versus five years).

But the biggest factor for most people in the wider audience Aveine is trying to reach is the cost. The Essential will be available at a pre-sale price of 199€ (~$232 USD) from Sept. 24 – Oct. 31. After that, the Essential will cost 249€ (~$290 USD).

That’s still not cheap for most people. But given how wine sales surged during the pandemic over the summer, and the colder months ahead (coupled with continued COVID), perhaps people will pony up to get a little more flavor in their lives while they are housebound.

Market Map: Booze Tech in 2019

From countertop devices used in the home kitchen to delivery services, the number of avenues in which companies can get booze to customers has expanded in recent years. And since it’s still the time of year when drinking on patios is a popular sport, we decided to focus our latest market map on all the tech out there currently changing the alcohol space.

In the U.S., alcohol consumption has actually stagnated, according to IWSR, but part of this is due to consumers now seeking quality over quantity when it comes to their drinking. Which might explain the rise in the number of companies offering recommendations apps that rate beers, wines, and spirits as well as at-home devices for the kitchen countertop that give the user a little more control over the quality of their drinks.

For The Spoon’s Booze Tech in 2019 market map, we divvied the market up into several categories where technology is making the biggest impact on the way people get, create, and consume beer, wine, and spirits. That’s everything from apps that update you on the best craft beers available to at-home bartending devices that let you release your inner mixologist to the many ways in which companies are making it possible to get the booze delivered right to your doorstep. We’ve narrowed the companies down to a collection of startups and major corporations alike. As with any post that outlines a market, this list isn’t exhaustive. So if you have thoughts and tips for who else you’d like to see here, feel free to drop us a line.

While we’re on the subject of maps, be sure to check out our 2019 Food Robotics market map and our Food Waste Innovation in 2019 map.

Booze Tech in 2019

Aveine Raises €1 Million for its Connected Aerator that Injects Tiny Bubbles of Air into Your Wine

Tiny bubbles. In the wine. Makes me happy. And piques investor interest, apparently. Paris-based startup Aveine, which makes a connected wine aerator, announced this week that it has raised a €1 million ($1.13M USD) from the Newfund innovation fund to expand internationally.

Aveine is a device that fits on the top of a wine bottle and shoots tiny air bubbles into the wine as you pour it. This may sound like next-level wine snobbery and silliness, but aerating wine is an important step in getting the full flavor experience out of a bottle.

However, not all wines should be aerated the same, which is where the Aveine comes in handy. Users scan the wine label with the accompanying mobile app, which talks to the bottle top device. Using on the company’s database of 10,000 wines, Aveine algorithmically adjusts how much air is injected into the wine based on its varietal and vintage. According to the company, these bubbles create more surface air-rea for the wine to interact, delivering a “rounder” wine with more taste than one would get drinking it straight from the bottle.

When we covered Aveine last year, its device was available to pre-order for $100 on Indiegogo, where the company raised more than $150,000 from backers. Those backers got a great deal back then as the retail price for the Aveine has jumped to €399 in France and $449 internationally. That is a lot of le pain to shoot air in du vin.

With its new funding, Aveine says it plans to expand further internationally into the United States and Asian markets. In the funding press announcement, Aveine said that it also has ambitions beyond bubbles, as it wants to become more of a platform that connects products and services around wine, offering features like augmented reality and personalized recommendations.

There are plenty of companies hawking solutions to improve your wine drinking experience. As Aveine is funded to fuel international expansion, we’ll have to see if its tiny bubbles make customers feel warm all over.

Aveine is a Smart Aerator that Fits on a Wine Bottle

If you’ve seen the movie Sideways, the thing you probably remember most is Paul Giamatti proclaiming “I am NOT drinking any f–king Merlot!” Perhaps Paul wouldn’t have been so angry if he had Aveine, a smart aerator, to let his wine breathe properly.

Coming soon from France, Aveine is a bottle-top device that removes the need for decanting by injecting tiny bubbles into your wine to aerate it as your pour.

According to Wine Spectator, “Exposing wine to air does two things: it triggers oxidation and evaporation… Wine is made up of hundreds of compounds, and with aeration, usually the volatile undesirable compounds will evaporate faster than the desirable, aromatic and flavorful ones.” So it’s not snobbery, it’s science.

But according to Aveine co-founder, Matthieu Robert, not all aeration is created equal. Depending on the type and age of the wine, too much or too little aeration can have a negative impact on a wine’s taste. This is where Aveine claims its technology can help.

There are two parts to Aveine. First is a mobile app, which you use to scan the label of your wine. The app talks with the aerator, which affixes to the top of your wine bottle. Based on the vintage and varietal information scanned with the app, the aerator automatically aerates wine as you pour it. The bubbles it shoots in create more surface area for the wine to interact with. The result, Robert told me, will make your wine “rounder and have more taste in your mouth,” as opposed to drinking it straight out of the bottle.

Right now, Aveine has just 10,000 bottles of wine in its catalogue, which is a pretty small number considering how much wine is produced around the world. As more people use the product, the company will use that data in its machine learning algorithms as well as expert help from sommeliers to update and expand its library.

Aveine will be available for pre-order on Indiegogo on March 28th. Early backers can pick up the Aveine for $100, though it will eventually cost $200. Robert said that the first batch of Aveine’s will be delivered this September.

Based in Paris, France, Aveine was founded in July 2016. It has raised a million euros in seed funding and currently has fifteen employees. After Aveine completes its Indiegogo campaign it will use that market data (where were people buying from, how many did they buy, etc.), to help determine its next fundraising strategy.

For those hoping Aveine is some type of philosopher’s stone, Robert warned me “Aveine won’t change crappy wine into good wine.” But maybe it will mellow out the obnoxious oenophile in your life.