The Enigma brand sources select lots of wine from prominent wineries and winemakers under secretive agreements. Under strict NDAs, Wine Spies cannot reveal the true provenance of their new wines.
Wine Spies founder, Jason Seeber (codenamed ‘Agent Red’), says of Enigma, “In our nearly 15 years in the wine trade, Wine Spies has developed deep and lasting relationships with the best wineries in the world. We approached one of our favorite elite producers, and together we created our first vintage of Enigma. We’d love to reveal our winemaking partners, but a good spy knows not to burn their sources.”
The initial launch includes two wines. The Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 is sourced from a multi-100-point winemaker. The other wine is a Santa Barbara Rose of Grenache 2019. Future releases of Enigma will follow the same exclusive formula of crafting incredible wines from producers that cannot be revealed.
Inspired by the legendary spycraft of the English codebreakers during WWII and the machine they cracked, each Enigma wine has a coded message on the front label waiting to be deciphered. After popping the bottle, wine-loving amateur cryptographers can use a cypher key found on the cork and the virtual enigma machine on the drinkenigma.wine website, to reveal the secret message and “unlock” each wine.
Enigma debuts another world-first by minting a collection of NFTs backed by matching tangible bottles of wine. Five bottles of the Enigma Cabernet have been adorned with five unique labels, each of which back a corresponding NFT. The groundbreaking auction will be held on OpenSea from August 3rd – 15th. The highest bidder will own the digital version of the label on the Ether blockchain, and take physical possession of the matching bottle.
“Scarcity and verifiable provenance drives wine values up. We think NFTs and blockchain technology can enhance these secure investments, and we’re excited to be a part of this exciting development,” says CEO Addison Rex (Agent Cru).
The release of these two inaugural Enigma wines come as part of Wine Spies’ multi-week Next Gen Launch Party event, starting on August 2nd. The Cabernet drops 8/4 with the rosé to follow on 8/11. The Next Gen Launch Party also includes the rollout of an entirely redesigned winespies.com with a host of brand new features, and a two-week long Cellar Stocker event of unprecedented wine deals.
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
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