INNOVATION AWARD 2022 of the German Winegrowers' Association: Round 1 - Award-winning innovations

As part of the 64th International DWV Congress The German Winegrowers' Association (DWV) once again presented its prestigious Innovation Award for outstanding new and further developments in technical processes, systems, products and services.

The INNOVATION AWARD of the German Winegrowers' Association is intended to promote technical progress in viticulture and recognise the commitment of innovative companies. "Sustainability, climate change and international competition are the most important drivers of technical progress," emphasises Klaus Schneider, President of the German Winegrowers' Association. "All companies in the sector were eligible to take part and over thirty applications were submitted."
The applications were scrutinised by an independent jury. It is made up of 23 experts from science, consulting and practice from Germany and abroad.
The evaluation is based on the following criteria: degree of innovation, influence on the quality of the end product, significance and applicability in practice, benefits for business and labour management, improvement of the environmental and energy situation, impact on occupational safety and influence on marketing.

Klaus Schneider: "Once again this year, the jury has set the bar high for the innovation award in order to recognise technical processes, systems, products and services as an improvement on the current state of the art or service offering. Taking into account the evaluation criteria, the jury awarded the title of "Outstanding Innovation" to eight applications. On behalf of the winegrowers' association, I would like to offer my warmest congratulations:
- ERO GmbH with the "ERO defoliator VITIpulse Combi"
- ERO GmbH with the "ISOBUS control system for implements"
- ERO GmbH with the "ERO leaf cutter Xview PROcut"
- Helmut Hofstaetter Technologies with the "HELIOS Wine" protection system against late frost damage in viticulture
- Naïo Technologies with the "TED weeding robot"
- Sattler viticulture equipment & machines with the "Sattler over-row cane cleaner"
- WM Agri Technics GmbH with the "Viroc 80" implement carrier
- Lallemand Inc. with the wine treatment product "Lallemand 20 ML-PRIME"

All eight "Honoured Innovations" will now compete in a second evaluation process to be awarded a gold or silver medal.

The announcement of these innovations, which significantly and decisively improve the current status, will be made on 13 April as part of the "Winegrowing Policy Wednesday" of the 64th International DWV Congress at around 11:50 am. Interested viewers can register for this free event until 8 April at pretix.eu/dwvkongress/2022/ register!

A detailed report on the innovations honoured with gold and silver is published in the ddw  in issue 8/22 (publication date 16 April 2022).