Welcome to the NoLo era - not just in alcohol, but in winemaking inputs. As wineries respond to climate-driven harvest compression and shifting consumer expectations, a new production model is emerging: low-to-no additives, minimal intervention, and maximum efficiency. In this article, managing director at FB*PROPAK, Paul Baggio, explores how future-focused wineries are leveraging technologies like ohmic heating - a non-thermal processing method - and membrane-based dissolved gas management to reduce toxicity, preserve quality, and enhance microbial control without traditional heat or chemical inputs. Layered with AI-enabled monitoring and data-driven decision-making, these tools mark a move toward smarter, leaner wineries. Paul says this isn’t about abandoning tradition; it’s about building efficiency, resilience, and precision into the craft - blending winemaking’s heritage with the speed and adaptability of modern beverage manufacturing.

Seeking answers to the challenges that confront the wine industry of the future - or contemplating what winemaking will look like over the next decade - is not a new preoccupation. Back in 2002, I convened a then- innovative concept: a conference titled ‘Winery of the Future’. In 2003, we hosted an Emerging Technology Tour through Italy. These events brought together both young guns and seasoned stalwarts of the industry - winemakers from Penfolds (Treasury), Casella, De Bortoli, Yalumba, AVL, TWG, Delegat, Indevin, to name a few. The questions posed at the time were strikingly familiar to those we still ask today:

• How can we best manage winery processes to scale and meet export demand?

• What varieties best suit our climate?

• How can vinification evolve to drive quality at scale?

• How can technology better manage water, labour, and energy usage - and their rising costs?

The class of 2003 was a curious lot, and many [see image reference] have gone on to take up senior leadership roles across the industry and beyond. What’s striking is that the challenges of that era remain starkly similar today. By exploring how our industries - both in Australia and New Zealand - are likely to evolve, we may gain clearer insights into how the current challenges can be addressed. While the challenges differ between the two nations, the questions of 20–25 years ago still resonate.

“No topic captures Australia’s winemaking psyche quite like the tension between traditional and minimal- intervention winemaking.”

What are some of the most promising innovations currently transforming winery operations?

Explorations into AI, predictive analysis for fermentation, VR technologies, and robotics are now part of a rapidly emerging landscape. Non-thermal processing and blast chilling systems are also opening new frontiers in microbial stability - vital as wineries navigate harvest compression, resource scarcity, and shifting consumer habits (notably those of Millennials). No topic captures Australia’s winemaking psyche quite like the tension between traditional and minimal-intervention winemaking. But as the saying goes, “Fear not for the future, weep not for the past.” Or, for the more romantically inclined, “Happy is the person who knows what to remember of the past.”

“Even in today’s difficult financial climate, wineries continue to invest in technologies such as ultrafiltration, gas management and tartrate stabilisation - clear proof of the industry’s resilience.”

As wineries embrace high- tech solutions, how can they integrate these advancements while still maintaining the craftsmanship and authenticity that define traditional winemaking?

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (ML) are ushering in a new era of precision winemaking. From viticulture through to retail, their influence spans the full vertical of the industry. At a recent local citrus conference, discussion centred on the use of VR goggles to guide AI-driven vineyard robots - a system pioneered by the University of Catalunya in Spain. In the US and South Africa, VR has long been used to train hand-picking crews. In California, labour shortages (down by as much as two-thirds in 2024) have fast-tracked the UC Davis program for vineyard automation. This includes robotic pruning, row management, and grape harvesting. Meanwhile, Pernod Ricard’s investment in autonomous vehicle tractors (AVTs) in New Zealand began four years ago.

Today, 19 such AVTs are in operation. These tools, far from being futuristic novelties, reflect traditional values: improving grape quality at the vineyard level. AI-powered drones and satellite imaging now allow for detailed analysis of vineyard microclimates and soil variability. This supports decisions around harvest timing, disease control, and yield forecasting - all with direct downstream implications for cellar operations. The shift to continuous-flow winemaking - well established in New Zealand for white wines - is a key example of how vineyard-level advances are driving winery innovation. Stems can now be removed in the vineyard, reducing transport weight and redesigning grape reception lines. AI systems even help re-route AVTs in real time during picking windows. Blast chilling, tunnel freezing, and bulk liquid systems - long used in other beverage sectors - offer new possibilities for lean, just-in-time winemaking. Juice can be preserved fresh without additives, enabling smaller, decentralised winery footprints. This could reposition Australia’s reputation for industrial-scale production and make the sector more agile, less reliant on labour, and better suited to global distribution.

Contract packaging and local fermentation near export destinations could also dramatically reduce carbon footprints. Even in today’s difficult financial climate, wineries continue to invest in technologies such as ultrafiltration, gas management, and tartrate stabilisation - clear proof of the industry’s resilience. Yet a persistent myth lingers: that using modern technology means abandoning authenticity. This is a false dichotomy, rooted in old-world vs. new- world marketing politics rather than oenological fact. Is a wine less “crafted” because it wasn’t crushed underfoot? Were the ancient Greeks industrialising when they sealed amphorae with Aleppo pine resin to preserve freshness? Innovation has always walked hand-in-hand with tradition - from 6000 BC Georgia to today. The southern hemisphere’s winemakers must move beyond the zero-sum notion that new equals inauthentic. What matters is meeting the evolving needs and desires of today’s wine drinker. That is true craftsmanship.

How are real-time monitoring systems reshaping equipment maintenance, precision control, and the reduction of unnecessary interventions?

The integration of smart control systems, AI and remote diagnostics has dramatically reshaped equipment maintenance and cellar management. Just as your fridge can now self-regulate, modern winery infrastructure can be remotely monitored, adjusted, and diagnosed - even from across the globe. This is particularly valuable in geographically isolated regions like Australia and New Zealand. OEMs in Europe can now log into local systems and provide overnight updates or support for night-shift operators.

Already commonplace in packaging and filtration systems, these technologies are now being integrated into cellar- wide automation:

• Automatic tank dosing

• Real-time chemical analysis

• CIP processes

• Safety monitoring

The resulting reduction in mechanical complexity and capital outlay is transforming the design of wineries themselves - with more agile, data-driven facilities replacing the traditional engineering-heavy setups of the past. What machinery or technological advancements do you predict will become industry standards in the next decade, and how should wineries prepare for these shifts? Looking forward, the use of membrane processing technologies will dominate across all sized wineries. The quality benefits UF and porous falling film technology provide in respects to a broad range of vinification processes, from front end juice concentration, O2 additions for ferment controls, H2S corrections in line, through to post ferment packaging CO2 and dissolve oxygen adjustments membrane systems will provide critical solutions for labour savings and enable less risks to wine quality.

Similarly, membrane technology as UF providing anthocyans and targeted molecular weight provide adjustment for red phenol, white wine catechin, through to grape juice removal of browning fractions will also play a critical importance to wineries in the immediate future. Technology as ultrasonics and Selective Extraction all offer solutions to managing polyphenol and anthocyanins through to accelerated extraction of grape cell aromatic precursors. As per UF, Selective Extraction systems enable not only challenges surrounding vintage compression to be handled front foot forward they also will be able to isolate phenolic compounds such as those found in green tea, to provide wines higher concentrations of antioxidants and or to with lower levels of additive preservative so as to manage more organically wine oxidation. Machinery such as autonomous tractors, optical sorters with AI integration, energy & water saving winery stabilisation systems could all become standard. Wineries would do well to future-proof by adopting modular infrastructure, building strong data frameworks, and prioritising low- footprint flexibility from vineyard to the cellar and to their wine packaging.

How are shifting consumer preferences as demand for minimal intervention winemaking, additive-free and lo and no alcohol wines influencing the evolution of winery equipment and processes?

With growing consumer interest in additive-free, minimal-intervention, and lower-alcohol wines, wineries are rethinking their equipment needs entirely. The focus of Lo/No wines and the growing interest from Zillennial consumers around ‘functionality’ in beverages in general would seem opportunistic for the wine industry. For all intents it’s no ruse nor exaggeration that wine was always the original functional alcoholic beverage! Winemakers are exploring currently alternatives to sulphites to manage oxidation and microbial spoilage. Non-Saccharomyces yeasts for example offering bio-protection and anti- microbial properties. Yet natural forming phenolic compounds and natural extracts are showing promise as antioxidants. The most exciting developments surround HPP, PEF and UV-C technologies. Ohmic Wave systems in particular, are well integrated in many other alternative industries as fresh fruit juice and diary.

“As wineries target specific ABV levels - regardless of the rising popularity of NoLo wines – serious discussions around shelf life will become inevitable, particularly for wines where sulphites are being reduced or removed.”

Technologies such as vacuum distillation all starting to reduce in capital cost that provide high quality management of de-alcoholisation through to membrane aromatic extraction systems that provide concentrated wine aromas are just some of the technologies starting to gain traction. Similarly, demand for transparency in winemaking is pushing adoption of processing tools and non- thermal stabilisation, allowing cleaner labels without compromising shelf life or safety to take up a more visible part of the modern winery narrative.

Final thoughts…

The future often does come with apprehension, yet great leadership always found paths forward, Abraham Lincoln spoke that the responsibilities of tomorrow cannot be escaped by evading it today. Winemakers have the opportunity to embrace a broader definition of craft, a definition of winemaking that embraces a New Zealand and Australian winemaker regardless of their scale or size, that values both heritage and innovation. By integrating AI, robotics, new strains of anti-microbial yeasts, IoT’s that remote diagnostic support, and new processing technologies, our wine industries are uniquely placed to solve persistent challenges and to actually lead the global conversation on what a modern, authentic, and sustainable winery looks like.

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This article first appeared in Grapegrower & Winemaker Magazine

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Wineries of tomorrow: Technology, tradition and the new era of winemaking