Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/70670
CO VER S T OR Y Parry and Crafton are among the first winemakers to inte- grate TankNET with VINx2. TankNET is a temperature-control system composed of browser-accessible software and wireless tank thermostats that monitor and drive fermentation. VINx2 is production software that captures data and helps guide the process from receiving grapes at the winery to locating cases of finished goods in the warehouse. Together, they track and trigger the essential steps for producing and shipping wine. TankNET control software and VINx2 production software share data. When Crafton completes a work order, he records the event on his tablet computer. VINx2 uploads information such as when he inoculated the juice, the movement or addition of wine and whether the tank is empty, full or somewhere in between. The TankNET web server updates information displayed on the 32-inch electronic whiteboard hanging from a wall in the production lab. When Crafton inoculated the tank, for example, he entered the information onto the tablet computer, and the completed assign- ment became part of the electronic record. "Once VINx2 alerted TankNET of the change, the LCD informed me that the status of the tanks had changed from an inoculated to a fermenting red," Parry says. In the production lab or the winery, Crafton, Parry and other members of the cellar team can use tablet computers to add information such as analysis results to the database. Over time the cellar team compiles a history of their wines, one vintage at a time. Working the cellar "We take the tablet computer into the cellar, with its water-proof case, where we can update the database by transmitting data wire- lessly from the tablet computer to the web server," Crafton says. WinesandVinesFeb2012_BWquarterpagead.pdf 1 1/8/12 7:50 PM Each barrel at Chateau Montelena is given a barcode sticker. When cellar workers finish a job such as racking or filling, the barrels are scanned and their statuses are updated in the main computer system. TANKNET® THERMOSTATS operate stand-alone and network with NO NEW WIRES at the tank. C M Y CM MY CY CMY K WWW.ACROLON.COM 707 938-1300 Wines & Vines JULY 2012 27 ®