ePour Technologies announces the commercial launch of its innovative high-volume/high-value system for serving wine-by-the-glass. The countertop system utilizes a patented pumping, temperature, and pour control system to maintain consistent quality and pour accuracy with every glass poured.
The nine-liter oxygen-inhibiting, bag-in-tray system allows retailers to significantly increase the profitability of each glass served by eliminating wine quality and wine service losses. Costs such as trash removal, storage needs, and server training are significantly reduced. The consumer receives an exact-pour-size quality wine at the right temperature every time.
The ePour system conceived by Ed O’Keefe Jr., ePour’s CEO and founder of award winning Chateau Grand Traverse Winery, Michigan’s largest winery. “We have been working on this high-volume, high-quality wine-by-the-glass system for several years and we believe ePour will completely revolutionize the economics of wine-by-the-glass sales,” O’Keefe says. “I initially started to develop the ePour system to improve efficiencies in our winery tasting room. It has evolved to have much broader applications.”
The system is designed to transform wine-by-the-glass service in restaurants, winery tasting rooms, wine bars, casinos, cruise ships, hotel lobbies, convention centers, banquet facilities—any retail operation offering quality wines by the glass. Operated by wait staff or as a self-serve machine allows the bar staff to focus on bar orders. The pour sizes are fully programmable for service by the glass, carafe, or bottle.
The ePour System capitalizes on the wine industry’s growing trend of placing high-value, high-quality wines in boxes and pouches to maximize profitability for wine-by-the-glass sales. The system’s oxygen inhibiting vacuum pump technology ensures that the wines have consistent quality and taste from the first pour to the last without requiring inert gasses to maintain quality.
Use of bag and pouch packaging rather than bottles reduces costs by 85%. Additionally, this eliminates labor and waste associated with disposing of bottles, half-used product, and degradation of wine quality. ePour provides a truly environmentally friendly approach to wine service.
The ePour touch and pour software enables the retailer total flexibility on how to design its wine-by-the-glass sales approach. The software allows the manager to preprogram pour sizes, server information, pricing, and alerts when wine needs to be changed. The ePour software is capable of being seamlessly linked and integrated with any retail POS system.
To change the wine, simply remove the tray, replace the wine pouch and slip the tray back into the machine. Any staff member can do it. Cleaning the unit is equally as easy. “Our goal was to develop a simple efficient means of serving wines by the glass while maintaining straight from the winery quality,” says ePour President Bob Kalik, former President of the American Vintners Association and long term wine industry counsel.
The ePour system is a countertop unit holding two nine-liter bags of wine—the equivalent of two 12-bottle cases. The system is manufactured by Dispensing Systems Technology, a division of Oven Industries, Inc. of Mechanicsburg, PA. The ePour unit has been certified by MET Laboratories, Inc. as meeting the UL 471 Standard for Commercial Refrigerators and Freezers and CSA C22.2 No. 120-13, Refrigeration equipment.
ePour will be test marketed in Colorado and Maryland. Two additional models for the winery tasting room and a larger model to handle four nine-liter bags will be introduced in 2016. Wines initially available for the system include Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi 2013 Cabernet and Chardonnay, Robert Mondavi Private Selection 2013 Cabernet and Chardonnay, Mark West Pinot Noir (2012) and Estancia Pinot Grigio (2013).
