Innovation, Optimism, and the Road Ahead: Reflections from AWITC 2025

As I walked onto the WineTech floor in Adelaide, I couldn’t help but feel it—real energy. It wasn’t just the buzz of booths or the Yeastie Boys warming up. It was the sense that our industry is ready. Not just for resilience—but for reinvention.

One of the most resonant closing sessions featured Ash, one of the leaders from the AWITC organising team, who framed our collective challenge with precision:

We’ve got 80–90 minutes of your time. Multiply that across 500 people here. That’s $75,000 worth of our industry’s most valuable asset—attention.

Ash AWITC

It was a powerful moment. It reminded me that while we talk a lot about yield, margin, and throughput—attention and focus might just be our most precious resources right now. We’re not short on passion. But we are short on time and alignment. And that’s the lever we have to pull next.

Across the event—seminar stages, hallway chats, booth demos—the themes were remarkably consistent: climate pressure, consumer change, supply chain risk, and ever-tightening margins. But what stood out was the convergence: growers, winemakers, and tech providers are no longer speaking different languages. There’s a growing consensus that smarter coordination—and better data—is the only path forward.

Michael Macalino of RO Ventures put it plainly:

There’s a storm of pressures—rising input costs, unpredictable weather, stricter compliance—but what’s missing is common language and common architecture between systems.

Michael Macalino RO Ventures

And while “open architecture” sounds like something out of a Silicon Valley playbook, it really just means this: let’s make it easier to get the right information in front of the right people at the right time. That’s something vintrace has always believed. If we can connect the dots—from vineyard to bottle to ledger—then we can start to move with real confidence.

Kelly Graham from Josef Chromy Wines gave a grounded, practical take:

I needed one platform, not four dashboards and two clipboards.

Kelly Graham Josef Chromy

I’ve heard this before from producers large and small—too many apps, too little clarity. The need isn’t just for digital tools. It’s for tools that actually talk to each other and work the way wineries do.

Ben Thompson of Best’s Wines brought that to life. He showed how autonomous tractors and canopy sensors aren’t about tech for tech’s sake—they’re about freeing up his team to focus on what matters.

We’re not automating for the sake of it. We’re automating so we can farm better—and spend more time where it counts.

Ben Thompson Best's Wines

That resonates. At vintrace, we don’t build features to tick boxes. We build tools that give back hours, reduce risk, and help people make faster, clearer decisions.

Over the three days, I also heard something else—quietly, and repeatedly—from several large producers. Many had chosen offshore ERP or production solutions in recent years, hoping to modernise their operations. But instead of progress, they’re facing delays stretching across vintages. Implementation headaches. Cost overruns. And the longer they wait, the more expensive those poorly chosen systems become—whether legacy tech or overly complex global platforms—not just in money, but in missed opportunity.

The real issue? Silos. IT, Finance, and Production each pulling in different directions, with different priorities and different tools. But now more than ever, those parts of the business need to come together. Now is the time to unite them with a solution that understands the rhythm of wine and delivers clarity across the entire business. That’s the role vintrace plays.

And underneath all of this—though few say it out loud—is the sense that this isn’t just about this year or next. It’s about what kind of business you’re handing over. For many, this is a generational moment. The systems we choose now will either unlock the next decade of growth—or keep us stuck counting the cost of missed vintages and siloed decisions. We need solutions that don’t just get us through vintage ’26—but ones we’d be proud to hand to the next generation.

Sessions on consumer strategy sharpened the commercial edge. Market trends are moving faster than our seasonal cycles. Demand for transparency, sustainability, and traceability isn’t a fad—it’s the new standard. That means better visibility into inventory, costings, and sustainability metrics. Real-time data is no longer just a nice-to-have. It’s how producers stay agile.

Sustainability was another recurring topic. Panels on regenerative farming, carbon tracking, and packaging lifecycles all shared a similar message: wineries want data that’s useful. Not just compliance reports, but actionable insights. Data that drives change. vintrace supports this daily—tracking yield, resource use, and winery operations with the kind of granularity sustainability teams can actually work with.

There were also honest reflections on leadership and culture. Several speakers acknowledged how slow tech adoption can be when change feels imposed. But one line stuck with me:

If you wait for the perfect time to modernise, you'll be five vintages too late

And they’re right. The organisations that embrace change early—who support their people and commit to new systems—are the ones best positioned to adapt.

Other sessions dug into inclusion, workforce engagement, and retention. The consensus was clear: it’s not just about what systems you choose—it’s about how your people feel using them. That’s something we take seriously at vintrace: creating tech that’s intuitive, approachable, and aligned with how teams actually work.

And amid all of that, there was the reminder of why we do this. The Yeastie Boys gig wasn’t just a party. It was a reset. A reminder that this industry runs on creativity, collaboration, and a bit of mischief. That’s what makes wine special—and why we care so deeply about helping it thrive.

For those who couldn’t attend

• Challenge & Opportunity: We’re facing profound shifts. But with the right systems and strategy, we can turn disruption into growth.

• Technology’s Role: Not a distraction from tradition, but a way to protect and evolve it.

• People matter most: Culture, inclusion, and leadership will shape how fast—and how well—we modernise.

I’ve never left a WineTech more confident in where we’re headed—and more committed to helping the industry get there. Because if we do this right, we don’t just protect what makes wine special—we give it the tools to thrive.

vintrace was built for this moment. To simplify. To connect. To clarify.

If you’re ready to move faster with confidence—let’s talk and let’s go! Book a meeting here.