Walter Massa is betting on screw-on caps connected to the network for wine quality and traceability

The technology available today allows us to touch our smartphones to a bottle of wine, or its cap, and a virtual window opens up on the vineyards where the grapes that were made into the wine we are drinking were grown. Plus, you can see a precise, almost point-by-point certification of the authenticity of the bottle. Further, it will also show you that a screw-on cap is definitely a valid closure for a wine, in this case white, suitable for long aging. These three indications became shared objectives, and were the foundation of the collaboration between Guala Closures, multinational leader of aluminum closures, and Walter Massa’s Vigneti Massa winery, symbol of Colli Tortonesi and Timorasso. Massa’s winery is the first one in Europe, and the second in the world, to adopt Guala screw-on caps connected to the network with NFC technology (near-field communication), in partnership with the software company Compellio.
Walter Massa, co-owner of the Vigneti Massa winery and widely known as the pioneer of Timorasso dei Colli Tortonesi, has chosen to equip their wines of the 2018 vintage with the connected closures of Guala Closures, including the already tested Derthona, available on the market since 2010, with the screw-on cap and in addition, for the first time, his most prestigious three crus: Derthona Costa del Vento, Derthona Montecitorio and Derthona Sterpi.
“The goals are different”, the wine producer explained to WineNews. “First of all, we want to collaborate as a winery in this development process. On one hand, there is the possibility of virtually bringing the consumer into the vineyard where the wine he is drinking was produced Then, through computerization, making a certification is actually possible as you can intervene throughout the company cycle, which gives you the certainty that the bottle in your hand is authentic. We also want to bring the Italian consumers closer to the screw-on cap, making them understand clearly that it is a very suitable closure for white wines for long aging, or at least, I can definitely say, for those obtained from Timorasso grapes. We introduced this type of closure in 2010 and for the last three years, half of the production of Derthona has been closed with screw-on caps. Starting in 2016, we have also tapped 500 bottles of each of our crus, which will go on sale this year. We totally believe in this type of closure, to the point that together with 22 companies from Tortona, some time back, we purchased a bottle tapper that closes with the screw-on cap, the crown one, and the classic one. And, more and more producers are opting for the screw-on cap”.
Therefore, thanks to the collaboration between Guala Closures and Compellio, a software company based in Luxembourg, those who choose Vigneti Massa - explains a note - can create their own virtual winery hosted on the Compellio online platform and receive information on the wine growing areas, the vineyards, the vine, the tasting notes and expert reviews. Additionally, the consumer will have the opportunity to verify the authenticity of the product certification thanks to the blockchain technology that guarantees the unique identification of the bottles. By combining Guala Closures and Compellio technologies, the connected closures are linked to the blockchain platform, which provides a unique identification code for each bottle. This allows Vigneti Massa to protect sensitive data and monitor it in real time, thereby providing effective support for the traceability of bottles along the supply chain.

“This is a revolution in the European wine sector that we have actually already applied to other markets in the USA, such as the spirits one”, said Piero Cavigliasso, Group Innovation Technology Director Guala Closures. “We are very pleased to be able to launch this in Europe, starting from the Italian market, together with an extraordinary expert such as Walter Massa, who has shown that he is once again at the forefront, having fully understood the potential of this product. Indeed, Massa is the first wine producer in Europe to adopt a screw-on cap equipped with an integrated NFC system, and second in the world following the Californian Böen, part of Copper Cane Wines & Provisions”.