Covenant started as a small Napa-based winery in 2003 and has grown to a 7,000 sq ft urban winery in Berkeley with a sister winery located in Israel. Covenant is unique because it is the only American winery making wine in both California and Israel. 

I sat down with founder Jeff Morgan and Winemaker, Jonathan Hajdu (over zoom, of course). I was delighted to hear about how they use InnoVint’s wine production software to streamline their processes.

“Jonathan and I have been making wine for 17 years, more or less together. A few years ago, we realized that it just really was not working….we needed a better way to track what we’re doing. We considered several different options a few years back.”

Before InnoVint, the Covenant team was using a lot of handwritten documents and spreadsheets. They saw a need to upgrade what they were using to improve both efficiency and quality.

Jonathan and Jeff regularly use InnoVint’s Winery Software to track what’s going on with the wines, what they have in-barrel, and which lots are coming and going.

“We need to keep it together. That’s what we count on with InnoVint. I’m glad we have it.”

When asked about the thing that sold them on InnoVint, Jonathan responded with, “ I think it was the aesthetic of it and the ease of using it. There are also many cool features that we haven’t implemented yet, but we probably will start using them, especially for the 702 reports. But really, it’s more of the aesthetic of how it’s set up. That’s the main thing I like about it. Compared to the other available software…the other stuff just didn’t really work for me. InnoVint was more intuitive.”

Winemaking doesn’t happen behind the desk, and I was glad to hear that Jonathan now has more time to focus on winemaking and spends less time mulling over paperwork. Who doesn’t want that?

When asked about the InnoVint onboarding process, Jonathan had this to share: “It was easy. Go in, add a lot, put in information, and it’s there! Your barrel codes and all. I also have my own wine that I produce here, and many of those wines I haven’t even put into the system yet. So I’m onboarding all the time.”

It’s great to see that Covenant is satisfied with their decision to move from spreadsheets to a software solution that does the hard work. Covenant’s story is the perfect example of tradition meeting innovation to make the best wine possible.

Check out the Covenant wines here.