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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

wine

Merlot-M-G! The WineCab Wine Wall is a Robot+AI Sommelier

What do you get for the person who has everything? How about an artificially intelligent robot sommelier that can securely store, manage and suggest wines from your collection?

The Winecab Wine Wall does all that (hat tip to Boss Hunting), acting kinda like a very expensive automated wine vending machine that you’d find in only the poshest 7-Eleven.

Wine Walls come in a variety of sizes, from the more modest Curio Classic model, which holds 130 bottles ($139,000) to the 15 ft. Wine Wall, which holds 600 bottles ($249,900). Each system features:

  • An articulating arm, calibrated with a gentle touch for handling delicate bottles of wine
  • A label scanner to automatically catalog bottles you add
  • An AI assistant to recommend wines and food pairings
  • Security features to gate access to certain bottles

OK. So the Wine Wall might be a bit of pricey overkill for your average oenophile. But, it’s possible to see the Wine Wall in a restaurant or hotel or even a grocery retailer that wants to add high-tech wine recommenation to their offerings without bringing on a full-time sommelier. (Though, admittedly, the interaction with a human sommelier is part of the fun of ordering fancy wine.) Winecab even has a smaller six-foot version of its wall “coming soon” that basically looks like a wine vending machine.

The idea of a vino vending machine isn’t that far fetched. Last year PanPacific unveiled a beer vending machine that could verify the buyer’s age before dispensing. Combine that type of technology with the higher end cuisine vending companies like Yo-Kai Express, Chowbotics and Piestro are trying to create and suddenly the idea of a robot wine sommelier doesn’t seem so silly.

Hmmmm… perhaps I’ll put one on my Christmas list for next year.

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.

Irreverent Wines’ Delivery Service is Out to Destigmatize Bagged Vino

If you’re looking for a nice wine to buy for yourself or as a gift, odds are you probably avoid wines that come in a box. Boxed wine — or really any wine not in a glass bottle — carries with it a stigma: quantity over quality.

A new company in Walla Walla, Washington is hoping to overthrow that stigma with an e-commerce line of bagged vino. Irreverent Wines is a subscription service that chooses to package their wine in bags because it’s cheaper for the consumer and better for the environment. The service launched today and is now shipping nationwide.

Irreverent’s founder, Chris Dukelow, was a former CFO for tech startups in the Seattle area and began making wine out of his garage a few years ago. He then got the idea to start putting wine in pouches, which he said are cheaper and more environmentally friendly than bottles. “A pouch is a great container for wine,” he told me over the phone last week. “It’s recyclable, self-standing, can sit in the refrigerator or counter, [and is] great to throw in your backpack if you’re going camping.” In short, it can do most things that wine bottles can, but is lighter and more easily recyclable.

All of Irreverent’s wines are sourced from independent and family-owned vineyards in Washington and Oregon, including Irreverent’s own grapes. The company offers the full gamut from reds to whites to rosés (though no sparkling because the liquid wouldn’t keep its fizz in the pouch). According to Dukelow, the wines Irreverent ships would retail for around $30 a bottle.

By putting them in pouches, Irreverent is able to sell the wine for a significantly cheaper price. A 1.5-liter pouch (the equivalent of 2 bottles) costs $39-$49 a month, and a 3-liter pouch (the equivalent of 4 bottles) costs $49-$59 per month. There’s also an option to add an additional pouch of wine to each shipment for $39. Members mark their wine color preferences on Irreverent’s site and the company sends them a different style or blend every month.

Bagged wine stays fresh for four weeks by keeping the wine away from oxygen; consumers use a spout at the bottom to extract only as much wine as they want right then. That means you can have a glass with dinner without having to worry that the wine could go bad. “It’s more flexible,” Dukelow told me. Bottles of wine, on the other hand, generally only last a day or two once opened. Bagged wine is also easier and cheaper to ship than bottles, which are heavy and breakable.

I was able to try Irreverent’s bags wine and found the whole experience frictionless and — most importantly — delicious. The wines arrived in a fully recyclable box; since they didn’t need to be chilled, I didn’t have to dispose of any pesky ice packs or styrofoam. I popped the rosé in the fridge and kept the red wine out on my counter. Over the next week, my roommates and I enjoyed grabbing as much or as little wine as we wanted in the evenings from the pouches. Both wines were light and crisp — perfect for warmer weather — and the wines stayed fresh for days.

Irreverent isn’t the only company trying to make shipping liquids easier. In Italy, Olivery ships olive oil refills in plastic pouches that can fit through a mail slot. So can the flat wine bottles from Garçon Wines.

Considering our current global state, improved shipping methods are actually critical. As much of the country continues to shelter in place due to COVID-19, consumers are increasingly looking for ways to get goods delivered so they don’t have to brave crowded grocery stores. Considering many of us are also drinking more during quarantine, Irreverent Wines just might be coming around at the right time to upend our notion of boxed wine.

Dukelow told me that they were already planning to start Irreverent this year, but that COVID-19 had definitely “accelerated” the timeline. “It’s a good time to launch.”

Data-driven Winery Winc Raises Over $5.3M in Equity Crowdfunding

D2C winery Winc’s equity crowdfunding campaign Winc Shares is closing today. The company launched Winc Shares on the platform SeedInvest in August of 2019 to raise its Series D funding round. At the time of this writing, the campaign had seven hours left to go and had raised $5.3 million.

If you’re not familiar, Winc is a winery that develops blends based off consumer data and trends. It sells D2C through tailored wine subscriptions, and also supplies its wine to over 4,400 retail and wholesale accounts. Prior to launching the Shares program Winc had raised $41.6 million.

The minimum investment for Winc Shares is $999 per investor. Each level includes perks of Winc credits and bottles of wine. With its new crowdfunded capital, Winc will launch a new “clean wine” brand as well as a line of saké over the next year. On its site, the company also states that it will acquire its first wine company in Q2 of 2020.

Equity crowdfunding has become a bit of a trend for startup companies in the food and drink world. GoSun, Small Robot Company, Miso Robotics, Mealthy and GOffee have all launched their own crowdfunding campaigns to let regular people buy a piece of their company. Winc’s campaign is one of the bigger and more successful, second in scope only to Miso, which is hoping to raise a whopping $30 million Series C round through equity crowdfunding (its campaign is ongoing).

Equity crowdfunding appeals to startups who want greater control over their destiny. If they get all their money from individuals, they won’t be beholden to the intense pressures that can come with VCs — though that means they also don’t get the connections and advice that comes from working alongside venture firms. Considering that Winc’s whole shtick is that it makes wine geared towards the palates of everyday people, not wine critics, it makes sense that the startup would choose to go the equity crowdfunding route.

One thing to note: the recent COVID-19 outbreak is throwing a wrench into the entire food and drink ecosystem, affecting everyone from farmers to restauranteurs. It’s too soon to tell if the coronavirus will negatively affect Winc specifically. But one thing’s for sure: Winc’s campaign is ending none too soon. With so many people losing their jobs, equity crowdfunding may be one of the areas that struggles in our new COVID reality.

CES 2020: Albicchiere is a Connected Device to Pour and Store Your Wine

Around this time next week, there will be a ton of tech journalists exhausted from CES and in need of a glass or three of wine. They should seek out the Albicchiere, a forthcoming connected wine dispenser that will be demonstrating at the show.

Made in Italy, the Albicchiere is a countertop device that pours and stores your wine. The “Albi” as the appliance is also known, brings your wine to the proper serving temperature (between 4°C to 20°C / 39.2°F to 68°F). before dispensing, so, the company claims, you get the most enjoyment out of each glass.

The Albi is launching on Kickstarter on January 21 and will cost early backers $279. The device is supposed to ship in September of 2020 (though, as with any crowdfunded hardware, caveat emptor).

At first glance, $279 seems pretty pricey for a wine dispenser, but here’s what else the Albi can do:

You can load the Albi with either your own bottled wine or special “Smart Bags” of wine the company sells itself for the device. These bags use a special patent-pending technology that keeps wine fresh in the device for up to six months, even if you’re just pouring one glass at a time, because the wine never comes into contact with oxygen. (Other wine preservation systems like Coravin, use argon gas.)

These bags of wine are reusable (though it seems like pouring your own wine into them would introduce oxygen), and the company says you can swap out bags of wine, like going from white to red during a meal, in as little as five seconds without needing to clean the machine in between.

We’ve actually seen a similar “smart bag” approach to wine containers before with the Edgar commercial wine dispenser at last year’s CES show.

The Albi has Alexa and Google Home compatibility built in, so you can ask it to pour you wine, though this functionality seems limited as you’d need to be at the machine at some point to make the glass available (the company says you could use it to have a glass of wine ready and waiting at the right temperature when you get home from work).

The built-in screen provides you with details about your wine, so you can learn more about where it’s from and other characteristics. The Albi keeps track of your wine so you know when the wine is going going bad and when you are running low. Albi can also reorder it for you.

The smart bags also make it easier to ship wine by reducing transport costs and carbon footprints through lighter packaging. Albicchiere says that it has already signed up 200 wineries that will sell their wine in Smart Bags. The cost for wine, as with buying any traditional bottle of wine, will depend on the type and brand.

We’ll definitely be taking a closer look at the Albichierre at CES next week, though we’ll save it for the end of our trip, when we will really need it.

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.

Food Tech News: Morningstar Goes Vegan, Smart Cheesemaker Fromaggio Launches Kickstarter

This week’s food tech news roundup starts out with a tale of two cheeses. On one hand, we have Morningstar, which has pledged to make all their products vegan over the next two years (cheese and all). On the other, we have Fromaggio, a smart cheesemaking device which just launched on Kickstarter, and which will allow you to make cheese from scratch in your own kitchen.

Kind of makes you hungry, right? Well go make a grilled cheese sandwich (vegan or not) and settle in to read our latest missive from the world of food tech news. In addition to all the cheese, this week we’ve got stories on canned tuna blockchain and a new tool that’ll tell you what wine to pair with your recipes. Enjoy!

Photo: Morningstar Farms.

Morningstar Farms to go 100% vegan by 2021
This week Morningstar Farms, which is owned by Kellogg, pledged to make its product line completely vegan by 2021. The company already sells plant-based products — from veggie breakfast sausage to burger patties — but will stop using eggs and dairy. Morningstar Farms is also debuting a vegan “Cheezeburger” at Expo West this week, which is their vegan Meat Lovers patty topped with dairy-free “cheddar.” This shift is a strategic move on Morningstar’s part to hone in on blossoming demand for plant-based products, especially protein.

Photo: Fromaggio Kickstarter.

Smart cheesemaking device Fromaggio launches on Kickstarter
For those who aren’t avoiding dairy, you might consider backing Fromaggio, a smart countertop cheesemaker that launched on Kickstarter this week. We’ve been fans of Fromaggio since we got to sample its tasty products at our Food Tech Live event at CES this past January. Cheese-lovers can snag a Fromaggio for $299 (the $249 level has already sold out), with estimated delivery in March 2020 (though we all know the struggle of crowdfunded hardware). The Fromaggio will retail for $579.

 

Photo by Thomas Martinsen on Unsplash

Allrecipes has a new tool that will recommend wine pairings
This Tuesday Meredith, owner of recipe recommendation site Allrecipes, unveiled a new tool that will recommend wine pairings to go with certain recipes in their database (h/t Digiday). Wine recommendations will be shoppable in U.S. states where it’s legal. The tool is part of Meredith’s partnership with Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, a vintner in Washington State (where Allrecipes is based), and will initially have 17 Ste. Michelle wines available.

Photo: Bumblebee.

Bumble Bee Foods and Carrefour use blockchain to track tuna and milk
It was quite the week for food companies to experiment with blockchain — though I suppose with buzz around the new technology, it’s always quite the week. Bumble Bee Foods announced that it has been piloting a program which uses blockchain to trace its yellowfin tuna from the time it’s caught until when it arrives on store shelves (h/t Fortune).

Over in Europe, Carrefour stated that it will soon begin rolling out a new product, Carrefour Quality Line (CQL) milk, which uses blockchain to provide increased traceability. Consumers can scan a QR code on CQL milk and get information about where the cows were milked, and when it arrived on retail shelves.

Did we miss anything? Tweet us @TheSpoonTech to clue us in on any food tech news!

Bright Cellars Raises $8.5M Series A for Personalized Wine Delivery Service

Unless you’re a sommelier, figuring out which wine to buy at the grocery store (red? white? rose? sparkling? orange?) can be more of a random choice than anything else.

Milwaukee-based startup Bright Cellars is trying to make the whole “figuring-out-which-wine-to-buy” thing a little easier with its B2C wine subscription service which matches consumers with bottles curated to their taste. Yesterday, the company announced that it had raised an $8.5 million Series A round led by Revolution Ventures (hat tip to Techcrunch). This brings Bright Cellar’s total funding to $13.5 million.

To determine which wines are the best match for your palate, Bright Cellars first has users take a quiz, asking about things like your chocolate preference and your favorite boozy drink (besides wine, of course). The algorithm then matches you with four bottles that are the best fit for your taste and delivers them to your door in a monthly subscription. Consumers can also give ratings and feedback on their wines, which Bright Cellar uses to tweak their future selections.

All of that feedback equates to a bunch of juicy data. Each time someone rates their Bright Cellars wines, the company is getting a coveted peek into consumers’ wine-drinking preferences. So it’s not exactly surprising that TechCrunch reported that in addition to sending you curated wine bundles, Bright Cellars is also using consumer data to create its own white label wines with undisclosed partners. Since they know so much about what their customers buy, they can create only varietals they know will sell — and then presumably they can continue to collect data on their wines through Bright Cellar reviews.

Even with its basic offering, Bright Cellars is capitalizing hardcore on two big consumer trends: personalization and convenience.

It’s no secret that people are thirsty to have every. last. thing. shipped to their doorstep — wine included. To feed the demand, everyone from small retailers to grocery giants like Kroger are doing just that. British company Garçon Wines has even figured out how to make flat-pack wines that are so thin they can slide right through your mail slot, so you don’t have to worry about package theft.

On the personalization side, several companies are working to find the perfect bottle(s) of vino to fit your tastes. Last year online wine search engine Wine-Searcher launched a chat bot to help lead consumers to their ideal bottle. Denmark-based Vivino lets users take a photo of a wine label and gives them in-depth details, consumer ratings, and an option for online purchase. Just last month, B2B wine recommendation service Wine Ring partnered with Signature Kitchen Suite to develop a wine fridge that tracks your bottles and uses data to make suggestions based on consumers’ in-app wine profiles and their collections.

Bright Cellar’s service costs $80 for monthly four-bottle delivery. For someone like me who rarely buys wine over $12 (sorry), this is a little costly. True oenophiles might also shy away from the service, opting for something like Vinsent, which gives people early access to exclusive wines. But for those who want some guidance and don’t mind paying for it — and who really value convenience — Bright Cellars might be worth a shot.

Vinsent’s New App Uses Blockchain to Disrupt Old-School Wine Purchasing

If you’re like me, your wine choice is 96 percent based off of the label (and maybe 99 percent based off its proximity to your person). But for those who are serious about their vino, getting well-curated, exclusive bottles can be something of an obsession.

Today Israeli blockchain startup Vinsent (formerly VinX) announced the release of a new wine marketplace that lets wineries offer wine futures — that is, wine that hasn’t yet been made — for purchase. Users can log onto Vinsent’s app and select their preferred wine color, attributes (vegan, organic, etc.), country of origin, and budget. The app then gives them a selection of curated wines and descriptions, which users can select to add to their “cellar.” After the wine is bottled, it’s shipped directly to the buyer’s doorstep.

By moving these wholesale wine purchases onto an app, Vinsent’s goal is to disrupt the traditional wine industry distribution model and let people connect directly with the winery, giving them exclusive early access to coveted wines and, according to a press release, “exclusive pricing.”

On the sales side, by selling not-yet-bottled vino, wineries get more cash flow to help them get by before their wines are ready for sale. The companies can also use pre-orders on Vinsent to forecast the sales of particular wines and the popularity of different years of each variety.

Part of the reason Vinsent is able to give better prices is because you can’t purchase a bottle — you have to buy by the case. That means that odds are you’re dropping several hundred dollars on a single buy, so Vinsent likely isn’t for the casual, low-budget wine buyer. However, for the oenophile who values novelty and has the available basement storage space, the app could be a worthy tool for finding new, elusive wines. (Though I wonder: How willing are people to spend a chunk of change on a wine they can’t even taste first?)

Regardless — if you’re buying a whole case of nice wine, you’d better be sure you’re getting what you pay for. Part of Vinsent’s appeal is that it uses blockchain, ensuring that each bottle is indeed from the advertised year and vineyard.

This may seem like overkill, but apparently, wine fraud is actually kind of a big deal. And if you’re going to be dropping a few Benjamin’s on a case of nice Chardonnay, it makes sense that you’d want some sort of measure in place ensuring that you’re getting exactly what you paid for.

There are several players shaking up the typical brick-and-mortar wine purchasing experience. Back in 2017 my colleague Jenn Marston wrote about the growing popularity of direct-to-consumer wine delivery, and the space has only continued to heat up. Vivino combines said delivery with an AI-powered wine recommendation service, and Garcon Wines makes delivery even easier by shipping flat bottles that can slide right through your mail slot. Vinsent brings the ease of delivery to serious wine purchasers who want to buy new, exclusive bottles in an easy-to-navigate marketplace.

Vinsent currently only lists 20 wine choices from 10 wineries in France, Italy, Spain and the U.S., but the company plans to add new wines and partners throughout 2019. It’s also developing a blockchain-based trading platform for wine aficionados to trade bottles amongst themselves, so they can buy a $56 bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and rest easy knowing it’s the genuine article.

Cheers to the Future: Five Cool Beverage Startups at CES’ Eureka Park

Sure, the towering installations, self-driving cars, and elaborate smart home setups at CES are fun to see. But my favorite part of the show is wandering through Eureka Park, the gigantic open room filled with over 1,200 startups all hoping to make a name for themselves. Meandering up and down the aisles of this room is one of the best ways to discover companies that are hidden gems.

Interestingly, some of this year’s coolest startups involved beverages. From coffee alarm clocks to wine sensors, here are five that caught my eye amid the chaos of Eureka Park.

Capsulier
Making your morning espresso with a coffee pod is super convenient, but those plastic pods are a blight on the environment (unless you mail them back to Nespresso), not to mention, expensive. Atom Xquare Limited’s Capsulier device is out to free you from the pod with their countertop machine which lets you make your own custom coffee pods for Nespresso machines. Just put a scoopful ground coffee (or loose-leaf tea) in the top of the device, pop in the reusable stainless steel pod, and pull the lever to pack your own pod. You can use it in your Nespresso machine, then wash it out and then reuse.

There are already refillable Nespresso capsules on the market, but Capsulier promises to precisely measure and pack your coffee so there’s no mess or guestimating. As of now the Capsulier only makes pods that fit into Nespresso machines, so if you use a Keurig you’re out of luck. The device retails for $99 on Atom Xquare Limited’s website, and you can purchase additional pods for $36 each.

 

TeaRado
TeaRado Tech‘s smart, self-heating tea tumbler can brew up to two cups of tea on the go. To make the tea, fill the interior basket with loose leaf tea, pour room temperature water into the tumbler, and set the brew time and water temperature on the TeaRado app. In 12 to 15 minutes, the water will heat up to 170 °F and brew the tea via an automated French Press-like movement. You can either brew by setting the tumbler on a charging pod and plugging it into the wall, or attaching it to a battery pack to brew on the go.

TeaRado’s brewer will retail for $150, and users can also purchase tea through the connected app. TeaRado will launch on Kickstarter on April 15 and is expected to ship in December of this year.

 

Photo: Catherine Lamb

MyOeno Scan
Unless you’re a sommelier, figuring out the composition of wines — and which types you like — can be a daunting challenge. MyOeno Scan has a small device (roughly 4 inches long) which, when inserted into a glass of wine, will display a breakdown of its levels of tannins, acidity, and strength on the MyOeno app. Afterwards, you drink and rate the wine, so the app learns what type you like. Once you’ve established your taste profile, you can search for compatible wines on the MyOeno app and see where they’re available to purchase.

The device retails for €89 ($102 USD) and is available on the MyOeno website and through Amazon. Fun fact: MyOeno can also be used in milk to detect if it contains any water or detergent, a service which the team told me is mostly used in Asia.

 

Photo: Catherine Lamb

Barisieur
Dragging yourself out of bed in the morning is way easier if coffee is near. U.K. startup Barisieur‘s coffee brewer alarm clock brings the cup of joe to you while you’re still in bed. The night before, fill the drawer on the front of the device with ground coffee (or tea), then set your alarm and indicate whether you want your coffee to start brewing before, during, or after your alarm sounds. It takes 2 to 3 minutes for the water to boil, and a few more for the coffee to brew. There’s even a small chilled compartment where you can keep a wee container of milk or half-n-half.

Barisieur retails for $445 (zoinks!), and is available online and in several large department stores in the U.K. and U.S.

 

DrinkShift
No one likes running out of beer. And while keeping track of your bottle count isn’t exactly rocket science, the new smart beer fridge from Tokyo-based DrinkShift manages your stock for you. The fridge’s server monitors your drinking pace and uses an algorithm to figure out when to re-order more brewskies so you never run out. You can customize beer packages to indicate which ones you want, and they’re delivered to your door via a third party retailer.

DrinkShift debuted their fridge this April; it was immediately bought by Panasonic. It’s not on the market yet, and also doesn’t yet have a retail price — but one of the booth workers told me it will first roll out in Japan.

Eureka Park is huge and I am but one person — did I miss any cool, under-the-radar startups? Let us know in the comments or tweet us @TheSpoonTech!

MyWah to Debut Connected Wine Dispenser for Businesses at CES

With CES just days away, I’m in a mad dash to finalize which companies I’m meeting with (feel free to pitch me!), what products I want to see, and exactly how much I’ll be walking around Las Vegas. One company that just popped up on my radar is MyWah, which will be debuting Edgar, the connected “Wine Butler” (h/t Gadget).

Edgar is a WiFi-enabled countertop appliance about the size of a mini-fridge that can precisely dispense three different types of wine, each at their proper temperature (so whites are cooler than reds, etc.). Instead of bottles, the Edgar system ships RFID-tagged bags o’ wine that tell the machine what type of wine is being loaded in, provide sourcing information about that wine, and have the added bonuses of being easier to ship and supposedly reducing wine oxidation.

There’s no pricing information on the MyWah page for either the device or the bags of wine, but Edgar isn’t for consumers. Instead, the company is targeting restaurants, hotels, caterers, etc. MyWah wants Edgar to revolutionize “the service of wine by the glass.” To that end, Edgar’s system also provides information for owners such as consumption data, invoice management and inventory management.

MYWAH presents Edgar, a smart device

A lot of questions remain about Edgar. In addition to the aforementioned lack of pricing, there is also no info on their site about whether any kind of SaaS subscription is required, and the wine page just says they are preparing a “beautiful wine list.” So who knows if they are crafting their own, white labeling or working with recognized names.

With those caveats in mind, Edgar appears to be at the nexus of a few trends in hospitality right now. First, it automates the process of wine dispensing to maximize profitability (so long, overpours!). It also provides real time data so owners can see exactly what is selling and when. Finally, using proprietary bags not only gives MyWah a source of recurring revenue, but also an easier way to ship liquid. Bags are also being used to make shipping olive oil easier and homebrewing less complicated. I imagine we’ll see more innovation in such packaging this year as well.

Perhaps I’ll save seeing Edgar in action for the end of my time at CES — by then I’ll definitely need a glass of wine.

Trendwatch: Flat is the New Black for Bottles

One of IKEA’s more genius moves was to break down their products so they could fit into flat boxes. These flat boxes made stacking, shipping and delivering odd-shaped Malm-style dressers and such easier and cost-effective. In much the same way, we are starting to see the containers for your favorite liquids get flattened to facilitate easier shipping and delivery.

Case (pardon the pun) in point: Food and Wine reports Garçon Wines’ Flat Wine Bottle, which was just listed as a Diamond Finalist in 2018 30th Awards for Packaging Innovation put on by Dow Chemical Company. (You know, like the Oscars, but without all the glitz.)

The Garçon flat wine bottle is pretty much what it’s name suggests: a squished wine bottle made from recycled plastic that is narrow enough to fit through the standard U.K. (where the company is located) mail slot. The company says it is made from 100 percent recycled, food-safe PET plastic. The plastic also makes the bottle lighter to ship and helps it withstand tumbles in transit as well as the drop from the mail slot to the floor.

Garçon is actually a B2B company, and has protected the intellectual property behind its bottle design. According to its website, Garçon is actively seeking out relationships with various wineries and “with those working at every stage of the drinks supply chain,” according to its website.

Garçon seems to be hitting the market at just the right time. Beverage Daily writes that by one estimate, 34 percent of beer drinkers in the U.K. buy booze online. Here in the U.S., DRINKS said that it shipped 10 million bottles of wine in the U.S. in 2017, and has 500,000 active households as customers.

Garçon is thinking bigger and partnering up with bottling facilities to expand beyond wine. Other companies are taking this flat approach as well. As we wrote about last month, Olivery’s smart olive oil bottle/system uses flat, plastic pouches that can fit through a mail slot to get you your olive oil refills.

Better packaging for shelf-stable beverage and liquid delivery will beget more types of bottled products that can be ordered online, which will beget even more types of packaging modified for easier/cheaper transport. And unlike IKEA, when the flat bottle of wine arrives, you don’t have to assemble it.