Metaverse, NFTs and Wine Tasting - the future is now!

It’s the future, but it’s already there, the metaverse will soon be everywhere. Wineries are seeing opportunities for experiential marketing here to visit the vineyards, meet the winemakers and build a community around it, where people can interact about something they share together. During the pandemic, lots of winemakers and owners did not hesitate to organize online experiences such as zoom tasting and tours of cellars and vineyards to engage with their customers. In this constantly evolving sales ecosystem, rare wines can become NFTs, masterclass and tasting experiences can take place in the metaverse. NFTs in the wine industry can be physical bottles or virtual. Why would we buy a virtual bottle? Well, it’s something that we can consume in the metaverse. A university in China is even working on how to bring taste buds through salt, acid, sugar, and umami into the metaverse (?!). 

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Why NFTs is the next big thing in the high-end wine market? 

• Wine is a speculative product: we can buy it at an auction, the price can vary and it’s a market where investors are willing to inject money. NFT can become that space where we invest and speculate around this type of goods. 
• Wine is rare and collectible, there is a huge potential for fan base community and wine connoisseurs. Additionally, the wine NFT  can be associated with a unique experience like a vineyard tour or a tasting with the winemaker
• Wine needs traceability for authenticity, storage condition and lists of owners, which can entirely be provided by the NFTs blockchain  
• NFTs can be both virtual and physical. We might not be thinking about it in the first place, but if we think about “en primeur” sales for Grand Cru, we are buying something completely virtual, that hasn’t even been made or released yet. In that case, NFT can become the perfect support for this type of transaction. 
• Last but not least, the royalties: when a producer puts his wine for sale, the buyer will only pay the price once, but then can sell it later on the market for 4 times the price he bought it. The producer won’t benefit from that at all. With the NFTs the producer, just like an artist that sells his masterpiece, can choose with his contract to add royalties on sales and market speculation. That is a wonderful opportunity for all the wine producers to take advantage of the market. 

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The example of WiV, the global leader for turning fine wine into NFTs.

WiV partners with wine producers, distributors and merchants, using the WiV smart-contract to tokenise entire vintages and make them tradable quickly, transparently and cost-effectively on non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces such as Opensea.
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Examples of NFTs in the wine industry:

• Dom Perignon x Lady Gaga - The collaboration between Dom Pérignon and Lady Gaga marks the encounter of two creative forces. Lady Gaga, inspires us to dream, to experiment, to express ourselves. And Dom Pérignon, perpetually exploring the edge of creation. Today, uniting their energies to spark inspiration. The design of this limited edition, rippling and shifting, is itself a visual ode to creativity. A vital impulse. A celebration of those who push boundaries.
• Angelus Saint Emilion - Cult Wines, the global leader in fine wine investment and collection management, today announced the release of an exclusive non-fungible token (NFT) in collaboration with Chateau Angélus, a historic, family-owned winery specializing in Premier Grand Cru Classé Bordeaux. Commemorating the release of Bordeaux En Primeur, 2020, the one of one digital artwork features a 3D animated depiction of the iconic Chateau Angélus bells, the emblem of the estate featured on wine labels and from which the winery takes its name.

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