Vinitech-Sifel Returns In-person After Four-Year COVID-19 Hiatus winemaking

Thousands of Visitors Flock to Bordeaux to Reconnect

Kerana Todorov

Vinitech-Sifel, France’s largest wine industry tradeshow, took place in-person in Bordeaux for the first time since the pandemic forced organizers to host a virtual event during COVID-19 lockdowns. About 42,000 visitors and 750 exhibitors attended the event held Nov. 29 to Dec.1, 2022 at Bordeaux’s Parc des Expositions-Lac.

Robots designed to cultivate, spray and harvest returned en masse. So too did barrels, tanks, cultivating tools, glassware, packaging and other goods. Topics discussed at Vinitech included climate change, labor shortages, global supply chain costs, inflation costs and vineyard land conversion into other uses. Vinitech is an opportunity to showcase emerging new products and this year was no different.

Here is a sampler of products a jury of experts recognized with silver and bronze medals and citations. Instead of a gold medal, the jury awarded an innovation prize and €5,000—about $5,400.

Vinitech’s Top Prize: VitiTunnel by Mo.Del

Vinitech’s special jury prize—and recipient of a €5,000 check—went to Mo.Del. The company presented Viti-Tunnel, an automated covering system designed to protect multiple rows grapevines from rain and disease pressure, as well as hail and frost.

Viticulturist Patrick Delmarre, who once worked in the Napa Valley, came up with the concept in 2016 so that his grapegrower clients would no longer

Harvest is on the horizon. You need tanks and you need them now, but compromising on quality to get them fast is not how great wines are made.

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Testing, which has taken place for the past four years at 10 sites around Bordeaux and validated by the French Wine and Vine Institute / Institut Français de la Vigne et du Vin (IFV), has indicated that fungicide use can be reduced by as much as 90 percent. The company may be ready to sell its first Viti-Tunnel in two years, Delmarre said.

The system entails a retractable 120-micron cover commonly found in agricultural fields, held tent like. The cost is about €30 to €40 per linear meter— about $32 to $43 per 3.4 feet. The goal is to reduce this cost to €15 to €20 per linear meter—$16 to $21 per 3.4 feet.

Delmarre said the special prize announcement has drawn interest from investors. Mo.Del may even have enough money to experiment Viti-Tunnel in the United States and other countries, he said.