TWE employee demonstrates automated line. Image courtesy TWE
Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) has launched an integrated automation and barrel handling system in its Barossa Valley winery in South Australia. The end-to-end automation features nine driverless forklifts, a custom barrel management software system, automated barrel washing and filling facilities, and individual barrel identification. The process currently runs 24 hours a day, five days a week, and is expected to boost the red wine handling capacity of the hall to 125,000 barrels.
The $10 million investment expands the site’s production capacity by up to 60 percent and enhances traceability of the barrels across their life cycle, while also reducing energy consumption and creating a safer working environment by minimising manual handling tasks. The driverless forklifts, known as ‘autonomous guided vehicles’, are controlled by a customised digital barrel management system developed with digital technology company Nukon, part of the SAGE Group. This enables the wine producer’s international winemaking team to control the system remotely to move barrels through the maturation process.
Integrating these components in an end-to-end automated system makes this a world-first in winemaking, bolstering the Barossa Valley’s credentials as one of Australia’s most innovative winemaking regions.
“Our Barossa Valley site is fast becoming an international hub of innovation in winemaking, sustainability and resilience,” said Kerrin Petty, chief supply and sustainability officer at TWE.
“Introducing full automation in our barrel hall increases our luxury and premium winemaking capacity, so we can craft more of our renowned wines for wine lovers around the world while creating a safer working environment for our people.”
TWE said the automation “optimises” how team members are allocated in the barrel hall, and assured that the site’s forklift operators had been either re-skilled to operate the digital barrel management system and manage the new automated vehicles, or moved on to other roles at the site.
The laser-guided forklifts in the 35,000m2 barrel hall have been tailored to the particular characteristics of the site by Italy-based automation provider E80 Group. The enhanced data and analytics in the automated end-to-end system create greater traceability and improved quality for the site’s 60,000 barrels of wine across brands including Penfolds, Pepperjack and Saltram. Modern, lithium battery powered vehicles, powered by 100% renewable electricity contributes to TWE’s goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2030.
Director of supply technology Jodie Rowlands said that the “new way of working” had been embraced by the on-site team, with evident improvements in the safety, efficiency and traceability in the barrel hall.
“The efficiency and precision of automated, sensor-based forklifts to transport the barrels lowers energy consumption compared to manual handling processes,” she said.
Planning and trials for the project began in late 2020, with the integrated system commissioned and fully operational in June 2024.
The state-of-the-art Barossa Valley facility opened in 2022 after a $165 million extension that expanded the production and storage facilities by a third, making it the winemaker’s largest bottling operation globally. Since then, the site has been enhanced with more than 6,000 solar panels that produce up to a quarter of its electricity needs, together with a wastewater treatment plant and stormwater capture that feeds a nearby 254-megalitre lined dam.
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