Otago's Providore Wines rolls out AR app to give buyers information

Otago wine producer Providore has rolled out an app which uses augmented reality to tell its origin story in a bid to encourage people to buy its wines.

The wine company, which launched in October and has vineyards in the Gibbston Valley, and has been working on the augmented reality (AR) technology for the past four months.

Providore Wines chief executive Craig Coote said the idea to use the technology was partly spurred on by the rise in consumers wanting to know where the food and drink they buy comes from.

"AR provides a way of communicating what we're doing and our story in a real-time situation," Coote said. "Using the AR as a medium to communicate and share, I think, quite a special part of New Zealand was key for us, and telling the central Otago story as much as the wine story is really what our intent is.

"We've got great wine, the technology is a way of trying to share the story and engage people to try the wines."

The app works through a smartphone or tablet by pointing the camera at the label it recognises and sets off an augmented reality world.

Through the app consumers can explore the vineyard in different seasons, take tours and watch winemaker Pete Bartle, who has been animated, explain the production process.

Providore plans to continue to introduce new features to the app and technology, including 3D-scanned features, Coote said.

"We don't see this as a one-off launch gimmick, we've got a long-term plan and we'll continue developing new content and interactions with the app and the AR. We can use it to immerse our clients into our world," he said.

Its wine label is an illustration of the Cromwell Basin by artist Stephen Fuller.

"Our plan is to talk to consumers about wine, our story and the region just by tapping on different parts of the label."

Craig Coote, chief executive of Providore Wines. Photo / Supplied

Other wine producers are using artificial intelligence similarly, including Treasury Wines, with its the Walking Dead Wine. Its app has had more than one million downloads.

Coote said: "We're not the first to use it, but I think we're the first to use it in a way that's more interactive and more engaging with storytelling."

Providore Wines began in December last year and produced wines at harvest this year. It launched in the market in October. The business is currently focused on building a domestic distribution base before it looks into exporting in 2020.

"We'd love to be a significant winery within the Central Otago region, scale-wise there are other wineries here with 30-50,000 cases - we'd love to be at that scale."

The Providore app is available on the Apple Store and Google Play.