AVIN, a unique code for wine.

30 Million Labels are Now Using the AVIN!

2010-12-07T16:57:30Z

We’re incredibly excited to announce that the AVIN has officially been printed on 30 million labels circulating internationally!! The AVIN code is a unique technology that solves an enormous challenge facing the wine industry, clean data; and we’ve been working diligently for 3 years to create this innovative and open standard for wine information.

Like an ISBN for books, each vintage of every wine is assigned a unique number that consists of 13 digits preceded by the letters AVIN (ex: AVIN6452997073019), which includes various data points including wine name, region and varietals. This unique code is currently free for wineries to register and is guaranteed for life. The key benefit to using the AVIN is that there is no longer need to dispute the wine’s origin, spelling of the winery name or various other key factors.

By becoming a central repository for information, AVIN helps to address internal wine trade issues as well as having customer marketing benefits. Over 25,000 different wines from around 7,500 wineries have already had an AVIN registered.

Wine retailers, importers, writers and also competition organizers can resolve numerous inventory queries by confirming wine details against the single information source.

From Carrie Jorgenson of Cortes de Cima Winery, she believes that the AVIN will ease the headaches of finding information about a wine quickly and efficiently.

“We believed that the AVIN would prove to be a good tool to make it easier for our customers and consumers to search/ to find online information about our wines, in this age of information.”

The AVIN also has consumer marketing benefits. Wineries can print matrix barcode on the labels to create a dynamic and interactive wine buying experience. For example QRCodes permit smart phones to scan and extract information from the wine label itself, displaying this information on the customer’s phone but also with the possibility to link to awards, articles and stockists.

The AVIN is currently setting up a Board of Directors to both manage the project and ensure the data remains free and accessible to all users into the future. Currently, any winery can create an AVIN code for their wine within minutes.

Let us know what you think of the AVIN? Has it helped your winery, made your life a little simpler as a wine lover, or maybe it’s inspired you to delve further in the world of technology and wine as a retailer. However it’s aided you, let us know!

Big News: Greek Wineries are Supporting the AVIN

2010-03-19T00:00:49Z

Despite the AVIN’s potential, strength and capability to revolutionize the wine world, it takes time for a winery to jump on the concept. For many, it may seem like an unnecessary step, an overly “techy” toy, that should be placed on the back-burner until a more “convenient” or “appropriate” time. Clearly, we feel as if the AVIN is an extremely simple tool that all wineries can, and should, use in a heavily web-driven world, and we’re not alone.

“I believe that the potential impact of this technology in the medium term is staggering. For a winery, there should be no excuse to not get involved, as using the AVIN is free…

Greek wine labels are often criticized for being confusing to consumers. By simply looking through existing sites that share tasting notes, it becomes obvious that the same wine often shows up in multiple entries under different names. The AVIN code will help to ensure that the wine in question is clearly identifiable.” – Markus Elloinos

Markus was the impetus behind 3 Greek wineries jumping on the AVIN bandwagon. Manousakis from the island of Crete, and Metaxas and Gentilini from the island of Cephalonia will start including the AVIN codes on their wine labels, and we couldn’t be happier. It takes a forward thinking and open-minded bunch to realize how the AVIN can help their brand, and hopefully, they will be the first of many Greek wineries to reap the rewards.

First Wine Region in the World to Adopt the AVIN: DOC Tejo

2010-02-01T16:35:05Z

Starting in February 2010, Tejo will be the first wine region in the world to officially recommend to their producers the adoption and implementation of the AVIN code for all wines within the region.

The region, recently rebranded “DOC Tejo”, is located in the very heart of Portugal. Historically known as a bulk producing region, in the last 15 years, it has undergone a massive transformation both in the vineyards and in the wineries, which has allowed for a significant increase in quality across its wines. In an effort to further embrace change, and push for innovation, DOC Tejo has formally recommend that all of their wines carry a unique AVIN.

André Ribeirinho is quoted as saying:

by officially recommending the AVIN to all wines within the region, Tejo is positioning itself as one of the most innovative and technology-oriented wine regions in the world. Tejo wine producers will benefit immensely from making their wines readily available on search engines like Google and also on any mobile phone.

We are elated to have the Tejo on board this project, and will be announcing more wineries and wine regions in the near future who are adopting the AVIN. As more and more wine projects adopt the AVIN as a standard, the sooner the wine trade will be able to benefit from it’s implementation.

If you are a winery, wineblogger, retailer or a viticultural region, interested in adopting the AVIN, please let us know by emailing us at info@avin.cc

New AVIN website launched!

2010-01-29T04:28:02Z

We’ve just launched a new AVIN website with a completely new design and an improved structure. The new website marks the start of a new phase of the AVIN project.

A phase where we will be communicating what we’re doing more frequently (so you can be aware of what is happening). It’s also a new phase where we will ask for your suggestions so you help us shape this unique project.

The new AVIN logo.
We’ve also launched the AVIN on some of your favorite social services so you can easily follow us. You can become a Fan of the project on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

We’ve also created a new newsletter and we’ll be sending the first edition soon. Make sure to sign up to receive occasional news about the project.

We have big news to announce very soon so stay tuned! We’ll be right back.