London-based emerging technology firm Everledger announced that is the first organisation to secure a bottle of wine’s provenance on the blockchain. The bottle, a 2001 Margaux, was certified and secured on the Chai Wine Vault – a joint solution introduced by Everledger and fine wine expert Maureen Downey to transform provenance tracking in the fine wine industry. Over the past year the company has focused on securing the provenance of diamonds on the blockchain with 1,000,000 stones currently encrypted.
The Chai Wine Vault issues certification to bottles authenticated through Downey’s Chai Method (TCM) where 90+ data points are collected, in addition to high-resolution photography and records of a bottle’s ownership and storage. Everledger uses the information to create a permanent, digital incarnation of the bottle that is written permanently into the blockchain.
“We hear daily from our industry partners on the threat fraudulent bottles pose to sales, trust and most importantly reputation,” says Leoni Runge, Everledger’s head of fine wine. “Blockchain enables us to secure the identity of an asset in a way we haven’t been able to before. For the fine wine industry this means the opportunity to add a layer of transparency to every stage of a bottle’s journey across the supply chain.”