It’s not enough to see the temperature. You need to control it.
That’s why the best option is the VinWizard STC Controller.

It does far more than display data:
🌡️ controls temperature
⚙️ automates key actions
🚨 sends real-time alarms
📈 helps wineries operate more efficiently

Key benefits:
✔️Better fermentation control
✔️Fewer errors and less product loss
✔️Lower workload for the winemaking team
✔️Faster response to critical deviations
✔️Up to 40% energy savings 

The real value is that it doesn’t just show information.
It acts to protect wine quality and improve operational efficiency.

Interested in seeing how the VinWizard STC Controller could fit into your winery? Let’s connect.  

Europe is putting real momentum behind energy efficiency and sustainability, and the wine sector is right in the middle of it.

We were at Barcelona Wine Week. The message was that automation and AI are becoming practical tools to run operations better, cut energy use, and make faster decisions based on real data.

That is where VinWizard fits, energy efficiency for wineries through automation, connecting operations, data, and control to deliver measurable savings without major infrastructure changes.

In Spain, this push is also being driven by the Federación Española del Vino (FEV) and its Digitalization Hub, bringing wineries and technology companies together to accelerate real projects.

Are you concerned about temperature fluctuations jeopardizing your wine quality during fermentation? 

Manual temperature management can lead to higher risks and prevent stable fermentations. The solution is here!

Introducing the VinWizard STC (Smart Tank Controller), the intelligent tank controller designed to give you full control at your fingertips and ensure precision fermentation.

With the STC, say goodbye to uncertainty and hello to:

• Real-Time Temperature Control: Precise temperature control, both local and remote.
• Consistent and Safe Fermentations: Ensures stability and provides consistent and safe fermentations.
• Risk and Cost Reduction: Minimize temperature deviations and reduce wine quality downgrades.
• Smart Automation: Includes automated pump-overs and oxygen control.
• Ease of Use: Intuitive touchscreen and instant alarms (App, Email, SMS).

Ready to guarantee your wine quality and optimize your winery costs? 

Let's talk about how the VinWizard STC can protect your product.

The Bottom line. Isn't that what we're all talking about?

Key Strategies for Enhancing Operational Efficiency

Automation of Processes

Benefits: Automation to minimize manual errors, reduces labor costs, and frees up staff for higher-value tasks.

Applications: Implementing Vin Wizard auto-pump over, temperature and brix monitoring, and Smart Power management to streamline operations

The linked document outlines a simple flow of Vin Wizard capabilities.

The Bottom Line. 

Automation can be seen as a ‘luxury’ but in reality it is one of the key ingredients to greater quality and reductions in overhead costs.

There’s more and more discussion regarding lean manufacturing of which production efficiency is at the core of ‘Lean’s’ definition.

What is Lean Manufacturing to you and should it be a focal point in your operations strategy?

“Lean” simply is ‘maximizing value while reducing waste’.

Lean translates to ‘improving quality’ as it increases consistency in production processes. 

Profound yet extremely simple.

In the winery, reducing waste means:

• Less Water
• Less Power
• Less Labor
• Less Fuel
• Less Movement 

At Vin Wizard, all we do is help wineries reduce waste and improve quality, freeing up staff from operational redundancies and allowing the power of automation to add $$ to your wineries bottom line.

The Future of Winery Automation isn't a sterile environment free of human interaction or simply producing bland salt-free crackers (so to speak) regarding the uniqueness of our wines. 

Power is at the center of winery automation with refrigeration being a massive power hog that demands our attention.

Let's get into a one of the key categories that VinWizard excels at mastering this world of temperature control: 

Pulse Cooling 🟰 Efficient cooling without the ice or overkill.

Pulse Cooling replaces the traditional method of continuous coolant flow with a smarter, more efficient cycle. Introduced to VinWizard customers in 2017, this technique delivers coolant to the tank jacket in controlled bursts, then holds it in place to maximize heat transfer — before cycling fresh coolant back in.

Why it works:
Rather than forming a layer of ice (which insulates rather than cools), Pulse Cooling ensures direct contact between the wine and the jacket — making cooling more effective and more energy efficient.

Key Benefits:

• No ice build-up inside or outside the tank — improves heat exchange
• Warmer glycol returns in bursts to allow chillers to work more efficiently
• Stationary coolant transfers heat better than a constant flow
• Promotes gentle convection, helping mix the wine naturally
• Easier on yeast — avoids the shock of aggressive cooling
• Reduces energy demand — fewer tanks call for coolant simultaneously
• Higher glycol temps possible, with the same results
• Pulse Cooling helps wineries cool with care, not brute force — resulting in better wine and lower energy costs.

If you are interesting in evaluating your energy and power systems, reach out to us direct: kelly@vinwizard.us

For a free download "Winery Power Audit" Spreadsheet to better evaluate where you stand on power consumption and learn about key areas that your winery can improve: https://wineryconsulting.consulting/winery-power-audit

What is "Visionary Leadership"?

Although most winemakers would hope that their entries into the wine world would be more unique than the next, crafting excellence in a wine from "X-AVA", or like Carol Shelton Wines "Monga Zin" from Cucamonga CA, what sets apart visionaries is having a unique approach that produces much more than simply another 'great wine'.

The questions we ask ourselves are critical in 'self-evaluation' with a primary one being;

"What exactly are we doing as an organization to lead with a Vision?"

This is the question Wine Technology, Inc. Founder Kelly Graves posed to himself when he purchased the Vin Wizard technology and company.

"I wanted to create a layer of useful technology that could enhance existing technologies in winery automation by being able to go right over the top of other existing technologies & that a winery doesn't have to abandon a good tool for a 'better one. We needed a compatible solution to enhance a winery's existing processing technology with a bolt on turbo-charge kit."

Kelly's goal to 'turbo charge' winery systems:

1. Free up the winemaking team to become more intimate with their wines vs. being bogged down with administrative tasks; 
2. Provide fast ROI with scalable systems to reduce power, labor, and risk in the cellar (re: reduced labor in critical high risk cellar activities or winery stress periods such as 'crush'); 
3.  Allow the winemaking team to take that ROI residual and invest part of it on R&D with an objective of continuous innovation. 

One of the areas of commitment that Vin Wizard is focused on is to ensure that the winemaking team does not feel constrained in the creative process when decisions are being made from the "Top Down".

Everyone understands that the bottom line is simply the bottom line.

"Can we make wine as good or better for the same price or less as our COGS and our overheads continue to increase?"

It takes two to tango.  

Wineries that are "Top Down Driven" who thrive in a highly competitive market:

As managers and/or department heads (that's one person in many wineries), we all know that when we're overly creative or innovative, we can easily blow our budgets in both time and expense.

On the other hand, as winemakers and marketers, it is the creative and innovative part of our minds that drive us to 'special outcomes'.

To be "Top Down Driven" without losing creativity and spontaneity, two 'buy-ins' from the winemaking team & CFO (and they must occur for both to 'thrive harmoniously'). 

• CFO's must drive the accountability for costs while the winemaking team strives to create systems to empower them;
• The Winemaking team must always be accountable to quality objectives and not be overrun by unrealistic expectations of quality without a budget;

Visionary Leadership occurs when all company culture, purpose driven company objectives, & leading technologies merge into beautiful products at a great value.

Do Better. Vin Wizard

Tank temperature stratification doesn't differ in the Southern Hemisphere!

We have a new MSP deployment and the data shows there are TWO different fermentations happening in ONE tank. Unfortunately fermenting Bordeaux at 14C/57F lower in the tank and 30C/86F near the top is likely not the winemaker's intention. 

The "sawtooth" trends shows the impact of a pumpover, which unfortunately is not achieving good enough mixing. The wine at the bottom of the tank never reaches the desired set point and the skin cap reaches the setpoint for less than an hour before jumping. 

While our real-time Brix readings are looking good as well (right side of the tank image), I know a lot of winemakers are changing their fermentation management based upon the MSP's ability to elucidate temperature at every level of the tank.

VinWizard will be displaying our latest tools for driving winery production efficiency.  Retrofitting existing wineries is a core competency of ours and will be highlighted with a working demonstration of our Retrofit Module, on tank STC controller, and award winning Multi-Sensor Probe (MSP).

Come have a look at the best in wine industry innovation and how it saves money and improves winery outcomes.  In today’s tough commercial wine market, wineries need every advantage available to maximize margin and improve resiliency; a combination VinWizard is uniquely suited to deliver.

VinWizard
Unified Symposium Booth: 1328

VinWizard is a global winery efficiency platform.  Specializing in reducing labor and energy costs associated with routine winery operations, VinWizard customers see positive cash flows immediately with our No Set-Up deployment strategy.

We are now a member of Renewable Fuels Association and looking to do business with their producer members. For more details, check out the latest press release.