Which grapes went into which bottle? The Food Detectives bring perfect clarity to Douro wine

euronews (in English)

Which grapes went into which bottle? The Food Detectives bring perfect clarity to Douro wine  Europe's top food safety experts are joining forces to crack down on fraud. Euronews is following them in this special series called The Food Detectives. In Episode 5, we meet the Portuguese team aiming for perfect clarity in Douro valley wine.  In partnership with the European Union & the Watson Project  READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/11/03/which-grapes-went-into-which-bottle-the-food-detectives-bring-perfect-clarity-to-douro-win  Euronews Next is a future-focused news section covering global innovation, science and technology with a European perspective. Our dedicated team of journalists aims to educate and inspire today’s leaders by providing them with analysis and insights into the people and organisations shaping our future

Transcript

00:01Europe's best food safety experts are joining forces to crack down on fraud.

00:06Euronews is following them in this special series called The Food Detectives.

00:10In this episode, the team committed to complete clarity in wine.

00:23It's autumn in the Douro Valley in Portugal and there's something special about the harvest this year.

00:29These vineyards are at the heart of an effort to bring total traceability to winemaking

00:34and it begins with measuring the production of each plant.

00:38Food detective Antonio Graça explains why it's so important.

00:43Vineyards are not homogeneous units, okay?

00:46There are micro variations in micro climates, in soil, even the plants are individual.

00:52So it is important for us to understand how each grape vine is actually leaving.

00:59Measuring production vine by vine is new here and to make it possible,

01:04these food detectives from the EU's Watson project have developed two devices.

01:09One is a smart secateur and the other is a connected bucket, both robust enough for everyday use.

01:15They allow the winemakers to record exactly where and when the grapes were picked.

01:20The goal is, during the Vindima, during the process of normal,

01:25we can measure all the cuts that he makes with the knife,

01:28and synchronize the cut with the disposal of the vineyards.

01:32It has a plate that allows to measure the weight and the weight result of the vineyards.

01:38The vineyards is also localized by GPS,

01:42which allows us to show the location of where the cut and the deposition happened in the vineyards.

01:49The motivation for such precision is clear,

01:52to shed light on exactly how the grapes develop different qualities and why.

01:57It's really a detective work, because we have to look at all the leads that nature gives us.

02:03We have to understand the soil, we have to understand the climate,

02:07the amount of sun, rain, winds, solar radiation,

02:12that is actually what makes the plant work and produce what we want.

02:19Once the grapes are harvested from these vines and loaded onto the tractor,

02:23they're tracked en route to the cellars.

02:26And here, the information flow continues.

02:29The moment they come into the reception tank,

02:32they are assigned a code to that volume of grapes,

02:37from which we know all the individual grape vines that contributed for that reception tank volume.

02:43One of the key challenges is managing large amounts of information securely.

02:48So these food detectives are testing blockchain technology

02:51to record which vines grapes went into each bottle.

02:55All this information that is collected,

02:57the goal is that it contributes to the knowledge

03:00and guarantees the rasterability.

03:02But we also need to keep the information

03:04in a way that is reliable and unviolable.

03:08And that is where blockchain comes from.

03:10We give us this mechanism.

03:12Alongside blockchain, another emerging technology

03:15is slowly making its way into winemaking.

03:18This autonomous robot knows these vines well

03:21and is being tested as a tool to cut grass,

03:24prune the plants and spray.

03:26The robot that we have here

03:27is able to navigate in these vines,

03:29which have high temperatures, as you can see here,

03:31and to navigate in a safe way, without falling,

03:33and to navigate totally autonomous and safe,

03:37either for the vines,

03:39or for humans, or for animals.

03:41Robots in the vines offer the chance to gather even more data

03:46about how the plants are progressing.

03:49If we have a robot that travels in these vines

03:52autonomously and frequently,

03:53we will be able to tell the story

03:55of each uva that exists in the vines.

03:58We will be able to understand

04:00what temperature it was,

04:02what humidity it was exposed

04:04and what kinds of treatment and fertilization

04:06took this uva.

04:08The ultimate goal of this team is to produce wine

04:13that can trace its journey from the bottle

04:15all the way back to specific grapes

04:17harvested on a precise day

04:19on a particular patch of hillside.

04:21For winemakers, such traceability

04:24means a chance to better capture

04:26the character of each harvest.

04:28We can work better at generating quality,

04:32generating identity from the earth,

04:36from the plants, from the places,

04:39and then transfer those identity and quality

04:43into the product, into the wine

04:45that the consumer will enjoy.

04:47That's all for this episode.

04:49Next time on The Food Detectives,

04:51cracking down on counterfeit olive oil in Italy.

04:54See you then.

04:55you

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