Crurateds Alfonso De Gaetano Talks Wine NFTs – Forbes Advisor

Sales of digital art non-fungible tokens (NFTs) may decline, but there are countless other players exploring new and unique ways to use NFTs.

What is an NFT, you ask? Think of it as a way to store digital records on a blockchain, the distributed ledger technology that underlies most cryptocurrencies. From public benefits to country titles, all kinds of data can be stored securely on a blockchain.

And what does this have to do with wine? When it comes to good wine, establishing and proving authenticity is a major goal. NFTs provide an ideal tool for giving winemakers and wine buyers an impeccable method of verifying the origin of individual bottles.

Forbes Advisor spoke with Alfonso De Gaetano, founder of Crurated, about the future of wine NFT. Crurated is a blockchain-based wine membership program launched in 2021 that bridges the world of NFTs and investment in rare wines.

Crurated recently launched an exclusive partnership with renowned French winemaker Charles Lachaux. During the partnership, Crurated members can access special offers such as Burgundy Aligoté, Les Champs d’Argent, 2021, and Côte de Nuits Village, Aux Montagnes, 2021.

Below are excerpts from our interview with De Gaetano, which has been edited for clarity and length.

Can you tell our readers how Crurated works?

Crurated has been built by wine collectors for wine collectors – I myself am a great collector. I wanted to make something that would be great for any wine collector.

One of the main problems in collection is access, and we provide access even if you are new to the world of wine.

Our platform gives collectors the chance to get wines from the best producers – and our platform is always expanded with some of the best names in the world, even though we currently only focus on Italy and France.

How do you use blockchain in your business? Are there stickers on the wine bottles for traceability?

We use Crurated near-field communication (NFC) labels on each bottle. This technology uses RFID (radio frequency identification) codes – this is what proves the authenticity of the wine.

Each unique bottle of wine is associated with a unique NFC code. And the unique NFC code is registered on the blockchain. We use the Polygon blockchain for our wine NFTs.

This creates a lot of value, by certifying a bottle from the moment it leaves the seller or manufacturer.

Can you give us an example of how this works?

We mainly sell lots. We do not sell unique bottles except for large formats such as Magnum, Double Magnum, and so on.

All the bottles we sell get NFC labels. Every client who buys on our platform can see where each bottle of their lot is, now in stock, now in transit.

So when they buy, their bottles are marked, and they get access to NFT on the blockchain, and then they can click and ship with whatever they want.

How does the use of blockchain help prove a wine’s authenticity?

When I went to wine auctions and bought as a grand collector, you did not really know the whole story of a given bottle. Maybe it’s some kind of certification, but you do not have absolute certainty about where the bottle comes from, the manufacturer, its history or how it got there.

So we really focus on the value offered by blockchain technology to solve these problems. We see it as very valuable for customers when it comes to the authenticity and traceability of bottles.

With wine NFTs, each step is registered on the blockchain. Ten years later, if you buy a bottle from Crurated or from someone else. You can tap the phone and see the whole story.

How many bottles are there on Crurated’s blockchain so far?

We have used NFT technology on 25,000 bottles of wine. These are some of the best wines in the world. Next year, we plan to make NFTs for at least 50,000 bottles of wine.

Is wine NFT a better way to handle digital certification?

We are the first wine marketplace in the world to use blockchain technology where it matters, and certify every single bottle that comes directly from producers to our warehouse in Burgundy, France, on the scale.

We offer customers full traceability from the time it leaves the manufacturer’s cellar until it arrives in their own cellar.

I have a strong belief in the functional value of blockchain. Lack of authenticity and traceability are major problems today in the wine world.

Who is the ideal member of Crurated?

We are looking for passionate wine lovers who are looking for access to some of the best wine and wine producers in the world.

We sell a full range of wines from top producers that usually start from 30 euros and can go up to tens of thousands of euros.

What is the future of NFTs in the wine industry? Do you think this model is sustainable over time?

It is undeniable that NFTs have built up a reputation for dizzying valuations that have quickly fallen. At Crurated, we believe in the value of blockchain and NFT technology beyond the hype.

If you were part of the early days of e-commerce, you may remember the hype surrounding e-commerce companies and the market downturns that followed.

Digital natives who stayed in the game and strategically harnessed the power of e-commerce to transform e-commerce across many markets now run billions, if not trillions of online sales each year.

The same goes for blockchain and NFTs. In addition to trade and, in our case, wine, they are used in a number of unique ways. There is hype, but beyond the hype there are opportunities.

Crurated offers four membership levels, ranging from a free service to a connoisseur membership for 36 euros per month, a collector membership of 180 euros per month and an ambassador membership for 600 euros per month.