EY and Blockchain Wine to build blockchain platform across Asia

Blockchain Wine Pte. Ltd. has selected EY to provide services to build a blockchain solution leveraging EY's OpsChain Solution, which Blockchain Wine Pte. Ltd. will operate to help determine the quality, provenance, and authenticity of new and vintage wines with a focus on markets in China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Singapore, where the consumption of European wines is expanding.

The EY OpsChain solution, the EY flagship platform for the industrialization of blockchain technology for enterprise users, was used to help build the foundation of Blockchain Wine Pte. Ltd.'s TATTOO Wine Platform, which Blockchain Wine Pte. Ltd. will use to promote and sell wines worldwide.

The TATTOO Wine Platform is supported by The House of Roosevelt – one of the largest wine cellars in Asia – which will use its platform to sell wines directly from vineyards to hotels, restaurants, cafes (B2B) and customers (B2C), and facilitate wine sales from customer to customer (C2C) for investment-grade wine collecting purposes, using smart contracts for increased efficiencies and cost effectiveness.

TATTOO stands for Traceability, Authenticity, Transparency, Trade, Origin, and Opinion. Going forward, the TATTOO Wine Platform will contain more than 5,000 labels, including wines from France, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America and California.

The e-commerce blockchain that EY teams developed for the TATTOO Wine Platform will help Blockchain Wine Pte. Ltd. offer its ecosystem of wine producers, distributors, logistics providers and insurance operators a blockchain solution to trace origin and quality of wines. It will also allow the use of tokens to buy and sell wine, schedule and track shipments, monitor warehousing and delivery, and arrange for and track insurance coverage of wine shipments.

The traceability functions in the TATTOO Wine blockchain allow participants to track each batch of wine to monitor and verify the authenticity and handling of the wine. Each bottle of wine will be "tattooed" with its own unique QR code. By scanning the QR code, participants can access information such as vineyards' names and locations, details such as the types of fertilizers used to grow the crops, and how each batch is transported for processing and delivery.

The management tools included on the blockchain enable wine distributors and consumers to use tokens to order their wine shipment directly from the TATTOO Wine Platform and track their shipment, including its movement through customs, and status of warehouse storage, all in real time. A smart contract capability on the blockchain provides a decentralized system for agreements between producers, logistics operators, and insurance providers, which saves time and certifies that all data is available to the participants.

Tim Tse, President, The House of Roosevelt, and Chairman, Blockchain Wine Pte. Ltd., stated, “By integrating blockchain to our platform, we will establish direct connections between wine producers, the distributors, and the companies involved in logistics, such as shipping and warehousing, with the possibility of payments to be managed electronically. As the market in China for European wine is expanding, there are many small and medium wine producers that want to reach this market, but there is no way for distributors – and their customers – to get information on product quality or authenticity. Because we are now bringing in more imported wines, and quality is extremely important to us and our customers, we wanted a way to equip our distribution network in Asia and worldwide and, ultimately, their consumers, with the information they need to help ensure the source, authenticity and availability of the product they are buying."

Paul Brody, EY Global Blockchain Leader, added, “ We are thrilled that Blockchain Wine Pte. Ltd. and The House of Roosevelt have chosen EY teams to build the solution for their global commerce network. The future of doing business will be through tokens and smart contracts and this network is at the forefront of this transformation."

Donato Iacovone, EY Mediterranean Regional Managing Partner, explained, "Blockchain has the potential to revolutionize the supply chain, which typically includes supplier payments, product traceability and contract bids and execution. The token feature of the blockchain EY teams developed for the TATTOO Wine Platform addresses these elements, and even helps distributors to exchange tokens for services like expedited shipping or special warehousing for their orders. All details of the smart contracts are on the blockchain and visible to all participants, and are compliant with global and country-specific regulations for shipments, which also speeds ordering and delivery."