An ECI Conference Series
March 21-25, 2027
Alba (Langhe), Italy
About This Conference
After the successful edition of ENG2WINE held in Porto (Portugal) in March 2026, the second annual conference is scheduled to be organized in the Langhe region of Italy. Engineering solutions and new technologies are key to meeting the evolving challenges of the global grape growing and winemaking industries. From automation and robotics in the vineyard through AI, novel sensors, and sustainable processing in the winery, these solutions can enable improvement in product quality and diversity, while reducing the labor, energy, water, and chemicals necessary for production from vine to bottle. The ENG2WINE Conference Series is designed for both academics and industry practitioners to work out how to incorporate the latest technology to meet the most important challenges facing a rapidly changing wine industry.
Conference Organization
Co-Chairs
David E. Block, University of California Davis, USA
deblock@ucdavis.edu
Dominik Durner, University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern, Germany
dominik.durner@hs-kl.de
Dimple K Kundiyana, E & J Gallo Winery, USA
Dimple.Kundiyana@ejgallo.com
ECI Liaisons
Franco Berruti, Western University, Canada
fberruti@uwo.ca
Anthony Dufour, CNRS, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France
anthony.dufour@univ-lorraine.fr
Scientific Organizing Committee
- Massimo Pugliese, Università degli Studi di Torino: Plant Pathology; Waste Management and Plant Protection
- Marco Piras, Politecnico di Torino, Italy: Advanced vineyard sensing and monitoring; Unmanned Aerial Vehicle systems (UAV)
- Earles Mason, UC Davis, USA: Agricultural sensing and automation systems; AI systems generating precision sustainable agricultural practices
- Emilio Gil Moya, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain: Agricultural Mechanization & Machinery
- Maria Paz Diago Santamaría, Universidad de La Rioja, Spain: Machine vision, NIR, and hyperspectral imaging in Viticulture, TELEVITIS core member pioneering new technologies in grape and wine production
- Daniela Fracassetti, Universita’ di Milano: Biocontrol for sustainable vineyard management, wine chemistry and quality, yeasts and wine microbiology, wine stability and photodegradation; precision viticulture and grape quality
- Antonio Graca, Head R&D, Sogrape, Portugal: Climate Change Mitigation; Wine Portfolio creator; Biodiversity champion
- Simone Giacosa, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy: Extraction and preservation of secondary metabolites during vinification; Phenolic content and wine color, Technological innovations in enology
- Boris Suprina Petrovic, Felice D’Errico srl, Italy: Enology equipment
- David Mendoza, Grupo Agrovin, Spain: Grupo Agrovin
- Kleopatra Chira, Université de Bordeaux, France: Enology, Oak-wine interactions, Sensory Chemistry. Contaminant Management
- Regis Gougeon, Université de Bourgogne, France: Analytical chemistry, metabolomics, and wine science; Climate change and sustainability
- Antonio Silva Ferreira, Universidade Católica Portuguesa & Innovation Manager at Cork Supply, Portugal: Automation and Process control; Metabolomics
- Silvia Fiore, Politecnico di Torino: Environmental footprint and sustainability assessment of wine production; Circular economy approaches for wineries, Value-added products from wine production residue
- Ron C. Runnebaum, UC Davis, USA: Sustainable winemaking, Material science for CO2 and volatile organic compounds capture, Value-add chemicals from winery waste streams
- Linn W Hobbs, Professor Emeritus, MIT, USA: Material Science & Wine connoisseur
Conference Themes / Sessions
| # | Themes/Sessions | Description |
| 1 | VIT Engg:Viticulture & Farm engineering/ Technology/innovation | Automation for labor intensive tasksWinegrowing: Vineyard operation, Irrigation, Advance vineyard sensing and monitoring, Robotics in viticultureAutomation & higher spatial resolutionPest management; Fire & smoke management; Frost managementAI & ML in winegrowing |
| 2 | WINE Engg: Engineering/Technology/Innovation in grape processing & winemaking | Engineering, technology and advancement in grape processing technologiesFermentation, Winemaking, Post fermentation processingEngineering, technology and advancement in No/Lo alcohol beverage making, sparkling, distillation spirits, RTD’s, SeltzersWine Maturation and AgingAI & ML in winemaking |
| 3 | Innovation & Sustainability Engg:Sustainability and Innovation in processing and packaging including waste valorization | Engineering, technology and advancement in liquid bottling and packaging & closuresTransversal session focused on Engineering, technology and advancement in grape and wine by-product creation, Resource recycling and reuseAdvances in optimizing winery utilities, energy generation and useAdvances in cleaning and sanitization, CIPSustainability, CO2 management, Life Cycle AnalysisAI & ML |
Previous Conferences in This Series
The first ENG2WINE Conference was held in Porto (Portugal) on March 22-26, 2026.
It brought together researchers, engineers, technology developers, and wine industry professionals from across Europe and North America to discuss innovative engineering solutions for modern grape production and winemaking. Hosted across the Douro River from Porto, Portugal, at the Hilton Gaia, in one of Europe's most renowned wine regions, the conference focused on addressing the major challenges facing the global wine industry, including climate change, labor shortages, waste reduction, digital transformation, and advances in automation and artificial intelligence—basically applying technology to enhance process efficiency and operational sustainability.
Unlike many technical conferences that separate academic and industrial presentations into parallel sessions or focus only on basic science, ENG2WINE was intentionally designed as a small, highly interactive meeting where all delegates participated in every session. This encouraged networking and discussion across disciplines and promoted collaboration between researchers, equipment manufacturers, technology companies, and wine producers.
A detailed summary of the conference is available at the following link: 2026 Conference Summary [PDF]
Conference Format
The format of the conference (the so-called “Banff format”) provides morning and late afternoon or evening sessions during which major presentations are made. One keynote (30 min) every day starts the morning session followed by short (15 min) presentations in the morning. After lunch, networking time is scheduled in the early afternoon for ad hoc meetings, informal discussions, and/or recreation. After some refreshments around mid-afternoon, the short (15 min) presentations will continue. After dinner, a poster session where posters associated with each of the short presentations will be discussed. The evening session is also designed to enhance networking among the participants. This format is designed to enhance rapport among participants and promote dialogue on the development of the meeting. We believe that this format stimulates the generation of ideas and dissemination of information to a greater extent than is possible through more conventional forums.
All participants are expected both to attend the entire conference and to contribute actively to the discussions. The recording/photographing of lectures and presentations is forbidden. As ECI conferences take place in an informal atmosphere - casual clothing is the usual attire.
Smoking is prohibited at ECI conferences and conference functions.
General Information about ECI
Engineering Conferences International (ECI) is a not-for-profit, global engineering conferences program, originally established in 1962 that provides opportunities for the exploration of problems and issues of concern to engineers and scientists from many disciplines.