Mieux qu’une cave, une grotte à 50m!

Dans le sud de la France, précisément dans l’Ardèche, la deuxième grotte la plus visitée de France après le gouffre de Padirac dans le lot, l’Aven d’Orgnac, abrite une cave à vin, surement la plus profonde au monde ! C’est parmi les 160 000 visiteurs présents chaque année que se cache le fruit du travail de pas moins de 1500 vignerons réunis en une coopérative afin de travailler le vieillissement et la bonne conservation du vin.

Neovinum à l’Aven d’Orgnac,
visites et dégustations œnologiques !

Il est important de noter la dimension et la situation géologique de cette grotte où les bouteilles ardéchoises les plus prestigieuses sont entreposées à plus de 50m de profondeur. Situé sous la grotte du plateau des gorges de l’Ardèche, ce lieu exceptionnel offre des conditions quasi parfaites de conservation avec une température oscillant aux alentours de 12°C à +/- 0,5°C et un taux d’humidité entre 95% et 100%.

On apprend tout de même que selon la saison, toutes les salles ne se comportent pas de la même façon. On s’aperçoit que même à ces profondeur les variations saisonnières se répètent année après année et suivent une vibration bien visible, la vie!

Les conditions « parfaites » et fixe à 12°C toute l’année n’existent pas (dans la théorie), même à plus de 50m les cycles des saisons accompagnent les grands cuvées d’Ardèche dans leur vieillissement!

Microclimates of l’Aven d’Orgnac and other French limestone caves (Chauvet, Esparros, Marsoulas)

C’est exactement ce que nous proposons chez Cellier Domesticus, comme si vous creusiez un tunnel jusqu’en Bourgogne ou bien à 15m de profondeur et tout cela sans la moindre pioche! Aujourd’hui avec notre thermostat connecté, vous voyager depuis la cuisine ou dans votre salon.

Visitez temperature.vin

Pour visiter la cave et profiter d’une dégustation avec de Neovinum et les produits des vignerons d’Ardèchois, rdv ici.

Better than a wine cellar, a 50 m deep cave!

In the south of France, precisely in the Ardèche, the second most visited cave in France after Padirac, the Aven d’Orgnac, cave is probably the deepest wine cellar in the world!

It is among the 160,000 visitors present each year that the fruit of the work of no less than 1,500 winemakers gathered in a cooperative, work on the aging of their best vintages.

Credit photo : @NEOVINUM_VA

It is important to note the size and the geological situation of this cave where the most prestigious bottles from Ardèche are stored more than 50m deep. Located under the cave in the Ardèche Gorges plateau, this exceptional location offers almost perfect conditions of conservation with a temperature oscillating around 12 ° C +/- 0,5 ° C and a humidity level between 95 % and 100%. It can be seen that even at its depth, seasonal variations are repeated year after year. The « perfect » conditions at 12 ° C all year long do not exist (in theory), even at more than 50m, cycles of the seasons accompany the great cuvées of Ardèche in their aging!

One of the profile offered by Cellier Domesticus BioClimatic Thermostat

This is exactly what Cellier Domesticus offers you, you are virtually able to dig a tunnel to Burgundy or 15m deep without a pickaxe! Today with our connected thermostat, you travel in cave of the world, from the kitchen or in your living room!

Visit temperature.wine

To visit the cellar and enjoy a tasting with Neovinum and Ardèchois winemakers’ products, go here.

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Get naturally the best of every bottle with Cellier Domesticus

PROTECT YOUR WINE NOW WITH OUR SENSOR AND CLOUD TECHNOLOGY :

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Save the climate, drink your wine warmer!

Jefford Andrew in Decanter is alarming :Change is coming.

COP21 starting today, proves that climate is a global concern!

But the power of changing may be in your hands and your glass of wine too!

Consumers should stop asking the sommelier to serve Chardonnay served at a damned cold 4°C!

You have the right to have a preference for raw or medium meat, I tend to myself find that it is overcooked in restaurants. But wine temperature is a question of type of wine and not personal taste preference. Do you remember, in the 80’s many people in the US were drinking red wine with ice in it? But wine is not Coca-Cola, try to sniff it, when you have discovered aromas and wine tasting, you drink wine for more than refreshment and a buzz.

If you want to taste like a professional (you don’t have to spit it in the ‘crachoir’), you will snif more than you sip (even better if you have a look to colour and viscosity at start).

But you don’t have to drink an expensive Chardonnay like a Meursault to realize that you kill flavours and aromas if it’s served too cold. Try a red from room temperature and the same from the fridge, if really colder is the better, you should try some new wines!

In the film Somm, Fred Daube the first american master sommelier is playing a demanding customer to train his apprentices. He is putting pressure on the sommelier asking a non sense temperature. Unfortunetly this customers exists in the real life!

Many sommeliers confirmed me that because many people are used to drink their white wine way too cold, they keep the cooler at 39°F. They often answered me  » I don’t have time to educate them or the owner, so I do it even if I know it’s bad! ». Many little changes in our habits could have a positive global impact on our experience, but on the environment too. Here I am not debating on global warming, I just want to enrich your experience with better storing and aging conditions. The side effect on the climate should add a motivation to learn new good practices with wine.

Here is What Master Sommelier book says about serving temperatures :

Sweet White Wines = 43-47°F, 6-8°C

Champagne &Sparkling = 43-50°F, 6-10°C

Light White Wines &Rosé = 45-50°F, 7-10°C

Heavy Whites & Light Reds = 50-55°F, 10-13°C

Medium Bodied Reds = 55°F, 13°C

Full Bodied and Aged Reds = 59-64°F, 15-18°C

Wine comes from the terroir that you can resume as the Soil and Climate, contrary to distillation, humans only try to impact levels of characteristics relying entirely on the environment and the life of living bacterias during fermenting process. From year to year the climate will dictate the unique footprint and the characteristics of a vintage! Don’t all vineyards work on the rhythm of seasons specially during spring and harvest time.

Wine is so dependant to the rest of the environment, even insects or bacterias around have a huge impact on its quality, a fact french Emperor knew back in 1875!

Napoleon III mandate Louis Paster to cure diseases of wine, that’s how Paster discovered that heating wine was killing bacterias also responsible for its fine taste! The failure for wine was applied successfully though on an other product : milk!

THE NAPA RIVER IS ALMOST DRY

My visit, last October, to the Napa was a shock on how dry it is after what they have been through the last years. Downtown Napa, the river is almost dry. This shows are thin is the life line of grape around here. It’s no secret why vineyards stick to rivers for ever (Loire, Dordogne, Danube…).

California is dry for 3 years in a row

If there is no water, there is no grape, Stéphane Derenoncourt french winemaker in a sequence of Vino Business is trying to explain Chinese investors that even with irrigation, « I can’t make wine here it’s the desert! » adding at a lower voice, in french to his colleague, the soil has nothing to give, it will taste like sh.t!

I was also scared by looking at the snow on the Sierra Nevada nearly gone, it reminds me the eternal snow from my young years in the alps also gone. Climate stability and cycles are in direct link with life of grape. Enjoying wine might save us!

You can not use water without having an impact so irrigation has it’s limit. We should feel the same about our energy, not only become it becomes expensive financially, We have to consider it globally. What is happening in the Napa, is also happening in Burgundy and every wine country is concerned, we share the same planet and the same air is travelling around the globe.

Land surface temperature anomalies for Australia from January 1–8, 2013. (NASA)

CREATING COLD IS NO MAGIC!

What ever you use a wine cooler, fridge, air conditioning, thermo-electric. Even geothermal systems have to exchange with something, that’s physic and heat exchange basics.

Every air conditioning is rejecting hot air while making cold inside! We must understand that not only you may use burning diesel to produce the electricity you need, but every refrigeration system also reject the same amount of hot air. There is no magic!

So for every cub inches of cold air made in a wine cellar there is a double impact  = electricity + hot air rejections. 

BE FRESH NOT COLD

Wine connoisseurs, « those people they don’t care about the energy, they can afford it ». But even in the luxury business of wine, people care about the environment and sustainability is a huge concern in the wine industry. In fact the professionals are the first to be affected and winegrowers like Pontet-Canet famous grand cru from Bordeaux are looking at Bio and all natural processes.

What about the average drinker, well knowing that your fridge is probably the worst in the list of carbon footprint. But if you want to keep your chicken in it, there is nothing you can do about the 40°C inside it. But don’t try this temperature in a glass door wine cellar! It’s physics it’s quite simple that cooling a bay window house is harder than a no window house!

Restaurants and customers I professionally asset, had poor efficiency installation and cheap equipment that were rapidly failed. My step father so often told me I’m too poor to be cheap. Well this particularly true with wine.

What is if a few kilowatts of a little wine cooler? Yeah probably only 50$ per year!

Yes, a little wine cooler (50 bottles) could use as much as 800kW/year. Its is equivalent to the energy needed by 16 persons per year in Haïti!

On top of feeling good to the planet, we also believe that being more educated, will free you from myths like white wines should be at 40°C or the myth of a perfect wine cellar must be artificially fix at 55°C, when only 100 feet deep natural caves des Observatoires de Paris is doing that!

Instead we cut by three energy needs doing a seasonal and natural pattern from 3 to 5 meters down like the oldest wine caves built in 1322 with our technology Cellier Domesticus.

Now imagine we can save the amount of energy needed by 1person/1year in El Salvador on every 1kW wine cellar (typical 300bottles Professional cellar w glass doors)!!!

I am convinced that every little change that benefit in your glass is an incentive to change now your behaviour in order to improve your drinking habit!

Wine bless this planet, cheers!

Franck Boulbès CEO of Cellier Domesticus Empowering #winelovers with better wines & less energy! @franckyboulbes | about.me/franckboulbes |

The Enchanted Objects, #IoT by David Rose @C2MTL : design, human and magic!

 #C2Montreal started with David Rose and his Enchanted Objects, it was the perfect fit for me and very useful for my business Cellier Domesticus. David Rose, in my opinion, is a prophet in electronic engineering and digital technology, with his work at MIT Media Lab. Probably the most relevant speaker I have ever heard with a great vision for IoT (Internet of Things). From this moment, C2MTL became a succession of #RevElevation (my hashtag creation for « elevate your dreams » as Rêve means dream in french). As one of the 25 emerging entrepreneurs chosen by Stephen and Claudia Bronfman Fondation, I had in mind that my perspective would change, but as much in an hour, wow! He confirmed me that for any IT company, developers and innovation are much important than data storage or cable speed. David Rose was limpid, it’s not a question of connectivity but a question of design, being useful to human and giving a little magic in your life.

David Rose :

« Objects are avatar for services »

« Computer efficiency is adding motion and magic with IoT »

At Ambiant Devices,  many interesting projects like a light that changes colour with the weather, the market trend… A simple but very intelligent example was the umbrella, that will lights up when it’s going to rain. I also loved the Door Bell ringing when someone is reaching home within a few miles.

That was a very good example of Anticipation Power. Read the future that is really magic.

Another magical power, is teleportation. Kind of a sneak peek of this power : The google earth coffee table form Mr Rose was for sure a very explicit example. I was envious of having the same one to play with my son at home, to show him parts I know of France for example. 

EnchantedObjects you can find NEST as an Enchanted Thermostat :

Learns your routines to heat or cool your house at the right times.

What about our technology, is the Guardian Angel from Cellier Domesticus Enchanted ?

Our first concern was the DESIGN, even for the first prototype I wanted the sensor in a wood bottle to fit the wooden racks. No way I would put an antenna near my old Sauterne. Sure our product name is divine : Guardian Angel, but our connected bottle-sensor is acting like an alarm system through alerts and protect in real time the wine cellar. 

Then a cellar on the cloud, meaning you can access in real time temperature and humidity form any device is convenient and it is obvious that everything needs a cloud now.

Ok it’s good looking, useful and even necessary for wine investment, freedom of the cloud is cool, but monitoring temperature and humidity is not enchanted or magic.

The magic is in our patented method of controlling climate. You can now teleport a climate from any place in the world at any depth. Meaning that if you want to have the exact climate of a natural cellar in Champagne at 15 meters deep you can! Playing with climate like god by TELEPORTATION of terroir this is kind of enchanted. Best of all replicating natural seasons pattern you can save up to 70% of your energy cost. Even better than a Nest in your wine cellar!

Ultimately, the Guardian Angel also have an ANTICIPATION power, by letting you know how fast your wine cellar is aging each specific origin and climate. Thank you David Rose for giving us so much enlightenment on what we have been intuitively driven developing our product. I hope to be a good IoT/Jedi and Mr Rose you are a spiritual mentor!

May the magical force be with David and for a long time…

Franck Boulbès CEO of Cellier Domesticus Empowering #winelovers with better wines & less energy! @franckyboulbes | about.me/franckboulbes |

We wish you a perfect year 2015

Dear #WineLover,

Happy new year 2015!

We are proud to reveal our last innovation « Reach the peak, for every bottle »!

Our bottle sensor is not only the best monitoring and control technology for a wine cellar, it’s much more than a remote control.

From your real conditions in your cellar, it lets you know when a bottle is ready!

The world only smart thermostat for a wine cellar now help you manage peak time (« apogee »), because you want every bottle opened to be perfect and ready!

Visit a few World-Class Chais climate remotely applied in your wine cellar with

PEAK MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY:

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Welcome in 2.0 1 5 ,

Where the Wine Cellar is intelligent, connected and custom to fit your needs and palate !!!
We wish you to be in perfect harmony with your passion.
Because our product is so energy efficient you’ll feel proud to save your WINE and the PLANET!

Cellier Domesticus Team
#IoT4Cellar
@AngeGardienVin
 www.cellierdomesticus.ca

Franck Boulbès CEO of Cellier Domesticus Empowering #winelovers with better wines & less energy! @franckyboulbes | about.me/franckboulbes |

How we "Made in Canada" the best Wine Climate Control

We care about efficiency and quality, when building our company and product it was a strong requirement for my brother Grégory and I.
Both born in Burgundy and Gregory living in Lyon we just wanted our Montreal wine cellar act like a natural french one. We first designed an intelligent product that we would use and love before offering it to anyone. Having a patent to build and new technology to launch on the market, creating a high technology product made in Canada was not only a tagline but necessary.
We knew that ‘devil is in detail’ and aiming that we are the best in our industry was implying that every aspect has to be perfect. Specially when we realize that our perfection would point out others weakness and they would probably not like it!
We wanted a total control, when sub-contracting steps of your processes. What figures say on cotation is not what you gain at the end. So searching for consultant was a careful process. Family value in an international business were possible, if we knew what to refuse! IP, engineering and manufacturing management were meant to stay in-house… Even only the two brother and very close family for nearly two years knew about the project, before signing a first NDA, with first partners.
It is a long way then of prototyping, research, research, work, work, work. On top of what everybody says about a startup, here is a few helpful values :  Control, Trust, Love

• Keep the control, keep local :

Start with the basics, fundamentally what is the beginning of your process. Coming first in the chain of refrigeration, the temperature information, so poor sensor, poor control.
If you take a poor and slow sensor, you respond slowly. A major weakness of wine cellar refrigeration systems rely on a one dollar sensor! Millions of inventory of wine and several thousand in equipment, but the major indicator cost less than a dollar! Kind of easy for us to get it right, spending 2500% the investment with a laboratory-quality sensor from Switzerland…

Refrigeration guys and manufacturers usually answer that liquid takes several hours to change temperature, whereas oenologues on the contrary justify that thermal choc is more dangerous, than slow changes. So we for the first time used a slowly variable annual setting, but very stable in an hour. We have tested with a 0.01 precision that liquid will start moving in half an hour if you apply 5°C variation . Which by the way happens every hour in a cheap and even not so cheap wine cellar. No wonder why the flyer tells humidity control, but they don’t even have a sensor or display for it!
All parts used in our Guardian Angel from Cellier Domesticus our connected-climate-control for wine cellars are mostly bought in Canada or the US for total supply control. Electronic board is manufactured by Gentec in Québec, there is no way we could not know in person every one in our manufacturing process. Final tests and wood finition is hand made, we can’t afford to deliver a non-functional product.

Keep also the CONTROL with your customer, until it’s totally done and even check for feedbacks after. Our iterative management allow us to create a loop and constantly improve our product and features to new opportunities.

• Focus on main process : For us no shortcut for efficiency and reliability,

We wanted to be totally transparent on our working process and let customer to have access to realtime information. There is no distortion or latency, we wanted to display temperature and humidity to customers and would educate them about the information and its meaning, if necessary. If your wine cellar has only two digit and showing 14°C fix all the time, he is probably lying just by a temperature and humidity next store and put it inside! Regular thermostat controller are very poor in term of computing, whereas an ARM cortex with Ethernet capability allow us a strong programming and a reliable connection as it has helped first Iphone.
There is no limitation and hardware can evolve easily our technology is not static and communicate.
The SaaS complete the hardware approach with a useful set of alerts and online monitoring to complete the concept.
Our precision make things impossible before, now easy to reach. We wanted people to be sure that their wine is protected and aging correctly. This process of showing how you are reliable build a very important thing TRUST.

• Ecosystem : You need to be in the club with the good partners

This the human part not in your business plan or powerpoint, but this will bring the deals and money. For us having approbation from customers was the first test, but less features or benefit oriented, being considered by the industry and major actors was the real business validation. Banks, investors, suppliers or partners need to be convince that you the entrepreneur is reliable. You can not hide behind your product or business!
People in your ecosystem need to LOVE who you are, what you do and how you do it. A passionate world like wine industry is particularly true on that matter.
All level and layers of industry need to be study and well known. We have spend three years to build trust and research every strength and weakness of competitors or opportunities. You need to take risk and have a strong confidence, because every one will test you. But if you think you are actually the best at what you do, you just need to be careful and give it to the right person . You will find in your business people trying to take profit of you, most likely people trying to mix friendship and business. Keep your kindness to your real friends and find partners under control, trust and love again! For the rest have fun but keep it professional!
Please feel free to share your own values to acheive success..

By Franck Boulbès, #winelover and #wine #cellar expert
CEO of Cellier Domesticus
@franckyboulbes

https://ca.linkedin.com/in/franckboulbes

www.cellierdomesticus.ca

This post is my individual opinion and does not necessarily represent Cellier Domesticus and I am not being paid by any other company to promote any products in my posts.