The Wine Pod Cometh

It's no secret that a huge number of visitors to wine country come away with the idea in their head of how great it would be to make their own wine. Some have visions of owning a winery on Highway 29 in Napa. But most just want to take a shot at bottling their own wine.

For these types there is a pretty large industry that caters to home winemakers. However, the learning curve can be pretty steep. Plus, there's all that equipment to buy.

It's these issues that attracted me to a new product coming to market that makes it easier to learn how to make wine and to actually produce the stuff. It's called the "Wine Pod" from Pro Vina.

The Wine Pod appears to be a blend of high technology applied to home winemaking efforts. The cool looking pod allows the home winemaker to cold soak, crush, and press grapes, ferment them and age the wine. Yet, the pod has a built in wireless network that can hook into your computer where you load the Pro Vina software.

Here's where things get damn cool. The software allows you to monitor the pace of your winemaking efforts while it teaches you the process. But wait, there's more. Built into the software are instructions or "recipes" for producing particular styles of wine. Want your Cab big, fat and fruity? Want your Pinot delicate and silky? How about Chardonnay with a crisp, no-oak character. The Pro Vina software offers instruction on how to achieve this style of wine.

A limited number of Pro Vina units will be produced in 2006 with production ramped up significantly in 2007. Customers are currently E-MAILING the company to get on a waiting list. The estimated cost for a unit is around $2000.00. You can make the equivalent of 5-6 cases of wine in each batch.

The Wine Pod system includes:

• 100 liter tank. About 6 cases of wine per ferment
• Wireless control and monitoring from anywhere
• Whisper quiet temperature control
• Cold soaking
• Ferment at automatically controlled temperatures
• In-situ brix (sugar by weight %), temperature and pH sensors
• Extremely gentle automatic 2-ton melior style press
• Submerged cap-management capable
• Oxygen-free controlled atmosphere
• Winemaking software included
• Color LCD screen with multi-point calibration
• Choice of metallic or wood WinePod tank finishes
• Choice of stone and tile pedestal finishes
• Optional 25 and 50 liter Hungarian, French or American Oak barrel, light to heavy toast

This appears to be a technological improvement in the world of home winemaking. But more important, it delivers accessibility to home winemaking, and this is what I like about the Wine Pod. This is not to say that winemaking is a push-button operation. There's an art to all this, clearly. But I'll say again, whenever you can make a seemingly complex operation easier to get at, when you can make it less expensive and when you can provide a vehicle for education while offering a good deal of fun, I think you are offering something very cool.

It will be interesting to see how this type of product does when it is in mass distribution. However, it strikes me that the Wine Pod is one more way by which wine is being mainstreamed in the American Culture. This is a good thing.

Comments

[weekendwino]

Wow. That is pretty cool! I guess I better get on the waiting list. It sounds like a fairly inexpensive way for us home winemakers to take it to the next level.

[Chico_Tilly]

This thing is genius!!!! What a novel idea. I would pay $5k for this.... Can't wait to get mine!!!

[Iris]

Very interesting - they say on their web page, that you don't have to live in a wine-region or near a winemaker - I'm just not quite sure, whether you still need any grapes...

[Iris]

sorry, didn't look far enough - yes, they even ship the grapes.

But seriously, I agree with you Tom, that it might be a good idea to "sensibilise" modern people to wine by its fun character.

[Geri]

It could be interesting to watch the results from buyers, and how good wine an "amateur" can produce. It's also interesting what "level of freedom" this technology allows, and how many decision points are there in the process, and to what level do they have effect on the end product.

Anyhow, this thing could and will build a strong community around itself.

[Stu]

What? This is one of those collaborative internet jokes - right? Come on - who the hell's going to crush, ferment and press in their kitchen? Just imaging the mess and those great "musty" smells! And what fun racking across your living room, and bottling in the bath. Gee - can't believe no one's thought of this before...