The trip was worth it. On the move for two weeks at the Paris Fair to participate in the Lépine Competition, Tegwen Naveos returned to Morbihan on Tuesday with a gold medal hanging around his neck. “It is the recognition of ten years of work and research and I hope that this will open up great prospects for us”, reacts the winner of the prestigious competition. Baptized Beaucarnea, his invention aims to revolutionize the conservation and traceability of wine bottles. All thanks to a capsule sealed at the bottom of the bottle which provides information on the experience of the famous beverage.
On its origin of course and its vintage thanks to a unique number assigned to each estate and a dial color specific to each cuvée. But above all on the temperature of the wine at time t and on the variations it has undergone during its life cycle. Because it is well known, wines do not like temperatures that are too cold or too hot and sudden variations in the thermometer. “This alters the taste qualities of the wine”, emphasizes Tegwen Naveos.
“No one pays attention to the transport of wine”
In a booming Grands Crus market, where bottles are traded and travel to the four corners of the planet, some buyers therefore sometimes buy bottles that have been lugged around in less than optimal conditions. “Nobody pays attention to the transport of wine today when we control the cold chain for all foods,” he says.
To stop the massacre and reassure the customer about the bottle he is buying, Tegwen Naveos has therefore developed this cap which, using two needles, allows you to know at a glance the minimum and maximum temperatures undergone by the bottle at the over the years. “It is irreversibly recorded and it is inviolable”, assures the designer.
A way to fight counterfeiting
Sommelier by training, the latter had the idea for this capsule ten years ago following a rather traumatic experience. “I sold bottles of Château Margaux that I had bought for the birth of my daughter to someone,” he says. She must not have known much about wine because she left her bottles for long minutes in the trunk of her car parked in full sun. I had cold sweats. »
Discreet about the components of his invention, which uses no technology and whose design he has entrusted to a watchmaker, Tegwen Naveos hopes in the coming months to convince major estates to seal his capsule at the bottom of their bottles. “It’s also a way to fight against counterfeiting which pollutes the wine market, especially on vintages with a lot of fake bottles but also a lot of real bottles but with fake content”, specifies the entrepreneur from Lorient, also at the head of the Pur Jus online sales site, specializing in organic and natural wines.