Winemakers Use NFTs to Craft a Wine Industry for the Future

“We’re much more interested in when someone opens the bottle and shares it with their friends,” Garrett explained. “We want to capture that moment and the data, and then also put the winemaker in contact with that consumer at the moment of consumption. If you’re opening a bottle of wine, it was usually made by someone long ago in a place far away; you’re disconnected from that winemaker. What we want to do with our project is connect you to that winemaker at the moment of consumption. Not only you as the person that opened the bottle, but also the other people that you’re sharing that bottle with.”

For instance, someone purchases a bottle of wine through Club dVIN, and that wine has an NFT associated with it (the NFT here being the “digital twin”). If the consumer decides to open the bottle of wine to enjoy, its NFT then gets “burned” and can no longer be traded or sold. For Club dVIN members, the burned NFT then becomes a “Tasting Token” which is, according to Garrett, proof of experience after having tasted the wine.

“It’s a digital collectible, but instead of being attached to a bottle of wine, it’s attached to an experience,” Garrett said.

He added that being able to communicate and create a community around the owners of those digital collectibles provide an innovative way for wine brands, especially luxury wine brands, to start building relationships and even, to a certain extent, start building commercial relationships with its best customers.

Tasting Tokens then live in the club member’s Club dVIN portal, creating a highlight reel commemorates wines tasted, experiences enjoyed, and all of the data attached to those experiences—when, where and with whom the wine was drunk. This digital collectible also provides utility to the winemaker. The winery and winemaker receive the data which they can then use to better understand who is drinking their wines. It gives them the ability to be in contact with the consumer, to create community and even make alterations to their strategic marketing plans. Perhaps the biggest draw is that for the first time, winemakers can easily track who their biggest fans are by seeing how many Tasting Tokens of their wines people have racked up. For Garrett, this is the power of NFTs that he and his team are most interested in, and he has already seen a positive response from the winemakers with whom the club works

NFTs and the Establishment of New Wine Regions

Garrett and his team are not only using the global reach of their NFT wine club to help wineries expand to new customers, but they are also using it to expand the wine industry itself.

The Bhutan Wine Company, founded by Master of Wine candidate and head of Deloitte’s Global Wine practice, Michael Juergens, was established a few years ago in partnership with the Bhutanese government and royal family.

The company’s mission is to develop the fine wine industry of this small country nestled in the Himalayas and celebrate its unique and prolific terroir. In an effort to commemorate this monumental inception of a new wine region, Club dVIN has partnered with The Bhutan Wine Company to create a oncein-a-lifetime trip for their members to be part of the inaugural Bhutan wine harvest in 2024.

When club members purchase the Bhutan trip NFT, they will have access to one of the select few coveted spots on the trip to embark on an adventure to Bhutan and assist with the very first harvest. The week-long trip will include time to explore Bhutan, dedicated work time in the vineyards, and a tasting of world-class wines and local cuisine prepared by Bhutanese chefs. Those on the trip will also get a chance to meet other Club dVIN members from around the world. NFT holders will also have access to the very first bottles of wine produced from that same harvest.

Perhaps the most enticing benefit of the NFT is that after the trip, the NFT is converted into an “allocation token.” This special token will provide the holder with the ability to purchase an allocation of The Bhutan Wine Company’s wine for an allotted number of years. This allocation token will be the only way to guarantee an allocation for the first few vintages.

NFTs are Being Used to Boost Port Consumption

It’s clear how new-wave, cult wine brands, such as Massican, can harness NFT technology to attract a new consumer; however, more traditional producers who have maintained reputations of quality for multiple generations may be more hesitant to pursue this type of technology. ere may be fear of losing the brand’s identity, or even its customers; however, in the case of Graham’s Port in Portugal, NFTs are a way to retain current customers while also catering to a new demographic.

Symington Family Estates in Portugal is one of the world’s leading Port and wine producers. One of its most important brands, Graham’s Port in the Douro Valley, has been crafting fine Ports since the 1800s with a world-renowned reputation. Harry Symington, fifth-generation family member and communications manager for Symington Family Estates, is ushering the brand into the new generation of Port consumption. The brand is dipping its toe into the NFT world with a pilot special release of its Port. Symington has seen that partially due to the growth in tourism to Portugal, there has been an emergence of a new, younger generation of Port drinkers who are focused on experience.

“What we’re seeing, in terms of volume and value sales, is that people, particularly younger generations, might be drinking less frequently but drinking more premium,” Symington observed. “So, they are perhaps saving their money to buy something a little bit more special and then drinking in that moment something that’s a little bit more premium. This is fantastic for us because we have Ports that, whether they age in bottle as vintage Port or in cask as single harvest Tawny, we have the breadth of a portfolio to be able to offer these consumers special drinking experiences.”

For producers with such provenance, it can sometimes be a struggle to balance the brand’s heritage and history while also innovating to attract a new consumer. Symington knows that in general, they have two main consumer types: the traditional Port drinker and the new Port drinker.

“The more traditional Port drinker, which is not necessarily defined by their age as is by how and when they drink Port, associates it with certain occasions,” Symington said. “They might associate it with it being a winter drink, perhaps a little bit more of a formal occasion. Then you have the new generation of drinkers, which is defined by how they’ve been introduced to Port. They are having white Port and tonic, or they’re having chilled glasses of Tawny Port, which is a style that is a little bit more accessible., Our challenge is to speak to both of these audiences.”

One of the main draws of attaching an NFT to a wine purchase is that it opens up the potential to have a unique experience associated with the consumption of wine. Given that Port and experience go hand-in-hand, Symington Family Estates has released a limited-edition case of two rare bottles, one of Graham’s 1970, the year the Symington Family purchased Graham’s, and Graham’s 2020, to commemorate Graham’s 200th anniversary. This limited-edition case has an NFT associated with it which will provide the purchaser of the case with special Graham’s experiences.

“Attaching this NFT is a way for us to develop closer relationships with those that want to build relationships with us and for us to be able to reward them, either through experiences or through allocations of special releases,” Symington said. “Our contact with the consumer is when they come to visit us, so having an NFT-linked special release gives us another dimension to our relationship with consumers which, at the moment, beyond social media and people coming to physically visit us, is still pretty nascent.”

As with any technological innovation of this scale, there are always potential challenges. A doubt Harry Symington has is that individuals who purchase a bottle of Graham’s with an associated NFT and wish to resell the wine won’t do so on the proper NFT platforms. This would then defeat the whole purpose of producers being able to use NFTs to track a bottle’s lifecycle and all of the data associated with it.

“That’s my only doubt: if we’re interested in seeing the lifecycle of a bottle, particularly if we release a vintage port very young,” Symington said. “NFT providers will tell you that it’s down to the experiences that you attach. If it’s just an NFT-linked bottle of wine, yes, you have the provenance and the authenticity, but you don’t have the additional perks that come along with it, so that’s up to us to offer experiences that are genuinely appealing.”

In addition, many consumers are already wary of investing in a volatile currency, such as crypto, or they simply don’t know enough about it. To help tackle this issue, Club dVIN started an “NFT 101: Crash Course for Wine Lovers” series on its Instagram reels page, as well as on its YouTube channel.

There is also the question of whether the widespread use of NFTs in wine will make an already exclusive industry more exclusive. As seen in the art and fashion worlds, NFTs are often associated with luxury products that are not accessible to everyone. However, in the case of Dan Petroski, it’s clear that his usage of NFTs is not making Massican more exclusive—it’s making wine more accessible for everyone. Whether or not NFTs cater to the luxurious, the exclusivity side of the wine industry will be up to the producer and how they decide to use this technology to their advantage.

Taking the risk to experiment with NFTs may be worth it as they can be a powerful tool for winemakers to connect directly with their consumer like never before. Whether for or against using NFTs in the wine industry, the technology has at least stirred up a buzz and brought more awareness to the wine world, which is always a good thing, especially in a world where consumers have significantly more options for beverage consumption than ever before. NFTs will become more common in the wine industry, but it may be a long time before they replace the way we purchase and collect wine altogether. For now, it is an attractive supplement to the traditional methods of sales and marketing that will hopefully alleviate the problem of Millennials and Generation Z drinking less wine. WBM

“Beyond the technology, we must leave room for magic, and that comes from the people doing the work. Working together as a team toward a common goal creates powerful energy.”