Case Studies
Antinori Napa Valley’s transition from Winemaker’s Database to vintrace led to significant time savings and less stress during harvest
“It was a huge weight lifted. We’re much more efficient. We got more done, and it was a lot less stressful,” said Marla Caroll, Winemaker at Antinori Napa Valley, regarding the switch to vintrace.
January 24, 2024
Since 1385, the legacy of Antinori Estates has been pushing the boundaries of winemaking. 27 generations later, they continue to do so, trying new technology in bite-sized chunks by leveraging it at one location rather than implementing it company-wide. The result is successful, forward-thinking wineries. As Antinori continues to preserve tradition and push innovation simultaneously, Antinori Napa Valley is paving the way to modernization for other wineries, creating a powerful interconnectedness within the Antinori brand portfolio and the larger industry.
Antinori Napa Valley is on a 1,200-acre estate – 550 of which are planted to vineyard. Situated in a valley on top of a mountain called Atlas Peak, Antinori is uniquely positioned to grow a few varietals that are often at odds with one another based on climate. The ten to fifteen-degree temperature differential from the valley floor to the hillside enables the successful growth of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon on the same property, which makes the site even more special. With all of the unique variables in the vineyard and winery, Antinori has found rich advantages in the software tools they have used to help conduct their unique business. They adopted vintrace in 2023 after vetting a wide variety of platforms.
Business Situation
Antinori Napa Valley was using Winemaker’s Database but needed wine production software that could grow with them
We do want to try new technologies and we do want to innovate, but we want to make sure we’re only doing it where it matters and where it’s going to drive the business forward, help us be more efficient, effective, and hopefully improve wine quality in the process.
Winemaker’s Database (WMDB) is a true pioneer in the winery software industry. Because Antinori often sits on the cutting edge of technology, leaning into experimental and strategic initiatives to maintain a foothold as a modern leader of the wine industry, they needed software that could keep their pace. In the early 2000s, this meant implementing WMDB. It was a true revelation for its time, giving winemakers a chance to digitize their processes.
Winemaker’s Database has been an incredible boost to the wine industry, and they deserve credit for their incredible contributions to the way we work.
Winemaker, Antinori Napa Valley
Antinori began to grow and needed to think about how to manage more brands, tanks, and work. While Antinori had made the most out of legacy software, the burden of emailing work orders and the requirement of double entry started to slow things down. An inability to access important information from home, complexity in translating work orders between locations, and extra steps required for nearly every process in the winery had Antinori scratching their heads as to what they might be able to do to optimize efficiency and leverage technology that was more aligned with their goals in the next era of business.
It was great for its time, but things have just moved so much faster and so far beyond this that for young people who are trying to go in there, it's just not like they couldn't work with it. Not because it's not a great system, but just because as a young person the technology is just really out of date.
Winemaker, Antinori Napa Valley
After vetting a wide variety of modern wine production solutions, it was with a grateful salute to WMDB, and the brilliant people behind it, that Antinori decided to implement vintrace.
Transition
Antinori Napa Valley experienced a smooth transition and great support to help future-proof their winery
It was a pretty easy transition because vintrace now owns WMDB.
Winemaker, Antinori Napa Valley
Antinori was ready for wine production software that could grow with them and help them regain their foothold in the modern beverage industry. They made the transition in July of 2023 and were up and running with vintrace well before harvest. It took an estimated…
A handful of transitional efficiencies helped expedite the process including:
Ongoing support from the vintrace team
Smooth translation of data from WMDB into vintrace
Ease of building or recreating work order templates
As harvest approached, Antinori now had new useful tools they didn’t have access to with WMDB that could ease the strain of their busiest season.
Notable advancements included:
Robust reporting capabilities
Seamless work order entry
Enhanced communication across all business touchpoints including the cellar and other locations
Business Impact
Antinori Napa Valley saves more than 10 hours per week, leading to a truly stress-free harvest
vintrace is designed to support Antinori’s continued growth across brands, locations, and technologies. A smooth transition, the perks of cloud-based technology, and Antinori’s determination to jump into vintrace with both feet led them to a harvest where they experienced a reduced workload, saved time, and managed to have a relatively stress-free harvest.
We want to try new technologies and we want to innovate, but we want to make sure we're only doing it where it matters and where it's going to drive our business forward, drive the quality of our wines forward, help us be more efficient, effective, and hopefully improve wine quality in the process.
Winemaker, Antinori Napa Valley
The time savings Napa experienced after their first vintrace harvest were significant:
You can use vintrace in many different ways and whatever way works for you. That's what I like the most about it.
Winemaker, Antinori Napa Valley
Future
Antinori aims to uphold their innovative legacy, leveraging vintrace to help future-proof the winery at every step
Antinori Napa Valley plans to spend less time working on wine tracking and more time on tasting and working in the vineyard. The legacy wine company hopes to utilize vintrace in their initiative to go paperless which will decrease their carbon footprint and tie into the goals of the climate and community resilience organization, Napa Green. The legacy wine company will remain on its front foot when it comes to innovation, leaning on vintrace and its partner integrations to further enhance connectivity between vineyard and winery in addition to enhancing efficiency in the winemaking process itself.
Take a page out of Antonori’s future-proof playbook and book a demo with vintrace.
