The new anti-fraud stamp combines a unique QR code and other security measures that guarantee the provenance of the bottle for the buyer, and tells producers exactly where and when a bottle has been scanned.
The QR code takes the user to a web page hosted by the Saint-Émilion council, which asks for a unique number, which should correspond to a code on the bottle.
If the QR code and the number don’t match, the producer is alerted by email that a fraudulent bottle has been detected. The exact location of the device that bottle can then be pinpointed via GPS.
Producers can see where and when every one of their bottles is scanned. Saint-Émilion council director Franck Binard told Wine Searcher that this was “one of the most important features of the system”.
The stickers, on bottle neck and back label, are tamper-proof and cannot be removed.
Early adopters
At this early stage, the system, which was designed by German company Tesa Scribos, only has five producers signed up but within a few years Binard expects all the Saint-Émilion grands crus to be involved and for some 20 million bottles worldwide to carry the stickers.
The system is already being used by Bordeaux Supérieur, and by the huge Castel wine group.
Compatibility with other anti-fraud systems is also important. Bordeaux’s top properties on the right and left banks have their own anti-fraud devices, and Binard said they are working to improve compatibility between Tesa and other systems such as Prooftag, which is used by Château Palmer among others.
“This is just the beginning,” Binard said. The council will be visiting Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing next month when the system will be promoted, and the United States at the end of the year.
Enthusiasm for QR codes is far greater in China – where new smart phones have scanner apps already installed – than in the west.
The stickers cost five cents per bottle and producers will have to modify bottling lines to attach them. Producers will bear the expense, but Binard said some Chinese distributors and importers had already indicated they would be prepared to carry the cost.
Source: http://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2015/03/saint-emilion-moves-to-stamp-out-fraud