Beyond Labels: Introducing Verifiable Wine by Provenance Tag

The global wine industry continues to face widespread counterfeiting. It's estimated that up to 20% of wines sold worldwide may be fake, with fraudulent products making their way into legitimate supply chains and damaging trust in both established producers and growing brands.

These counterfeit operations are not isolated. They are increasingly sophisticated and international in scope.

One of Many: A High-Profile 2024 Counterfeiting Case

In October 2024, a coordinated effort by the French Gendarmerie, Italian Carabinieri NAS, and Swiss Federal Police—supported by Europol and Eurojust—dismantled a network responsible for producing and exporting counterfeit French PDO wines.

The forged bottles, made in Italy, were sold through legitimate wine distributors and reached global markets, some priced at over €15,000. This is just one of many documented cases. The reality is clear: traditional authentication methods are no longer sufficient.

Moving Beyond Labels: Introducing Verifiable Wine

At Provenance Tags, we’ve developed Verifiable Wine—a solution that combines tamper-evident hardware, encrypted NFC tags, and Concordium blockchain traceability.

It is designed to integrate seamlessly into production lines and offers full product integrity from the vineyard to the consumer.

Key Capabilities:

• Tamper-evident heat shrink capsule with embedded detection wire. 

• Secure NFC tag concealed beneath the capsule, inaccessible without breaking seal. 

• Encrypted data storage on the Concordium blockchain. 

• Digital identity for each bottle, recording origin, production, and ownership. 

• Real-time supply chain tracking with optional IoT data. 

• No app required for basic scan verification—works instantly in the browser

Each bottle becomes verifiable, traceable, and fraud-resistant—without requiring changes to the manufacturing process.

Secure Authentication Options

Verifiable Wine supports both:

• Dynamic URL Authentication – Ideal for consumer use; simple scans generate cryptographically signed URLs. 

• Mutual Authentication – For high-security environments; ensures physical presence and prevents replay attacks

These options can be deployed together, balancing security with convenience based on use case.

Tamper Detection in Physical Tags

We offer both standard and tamper-detection NFC tags:

• Standard Tags: Include core cryptographic security and scan logging. 

• Tamper-Detection Tags: Include a detection wire that flags if the tag or packaging has been breached

This enhances trust at the product level—essential in luxury goods like wine.

End-to-End Protection in E-Commerce and Logistics

With Verifiable Wine, each shipment—whether a bottle or a full case—can be secured and monitored throughout its journey. Features include:

• Package and bottle-level tamper checks. 

• Temperature logging to detect exposure during transit. 

• Ownership verification at handover points. 

• Return flow management through trusted authentication

Whether wine is sold in retail, online, or auction markets, the full chain of custody is digitally recorded and verifiable.

Powered by Concordium

The solution is built on the Concordium blockchain, offering:

• Protocol-level identity for producers and partners. 

• Immutable product data with privacy-preserving access. 

• Smart contract logic to manage traceability, ownership, and compliance. 

• NFT issuance for bottle identities and resale tracking

This infrastructure supports both global scale and regulatory compliance, without compromising performance or privacy.

Conclusion

The wine industry is rooted in tradition but must defend against evolving threats. Counterfeit wines erode consumer confidence, damage brands, and disrupt global trade.

Verifiable Wine provides a scalable, secure, and transparent solution.

By combining tamper-evident packaging, cryptographically secure tags, and blockchain-based tracking, we enable wineries and distributors to protect their products—while empowering consumers to trust what they buy.

To explore how Verifiable Wine can protect your brand and supply chain, visit: 👉 https://PTagChain.io