Luigi Bosca incorporates audio guides to learn the history of 4 generations of the Arizu family and their hard work for the viticulture in Mendoza. Caro Winery immerses us in an original experience through the use of augmented reality.
Raíces (Roots) Experience, innovation to connect with nature and the wine history of Mendoza
Just 30 kilometers away from the City of Mendoza, in the department of Maipú, you can find the wonderful Finca el Paraíso, a 1926 château located among the most emblematic vineyards of the Luigi Bosca winery.
As soon as you enter the property, you are struck by the elegant manor belonging to the Arizu Family. Past, present and future come together there at hands of 4 generations that have created today’s winery during the last 120 years. Everything begun in this house, which originally belonged to the engineer Frank Romero Day, a prominent politician and the creator of the Harvest Festival in Mendoza.
And what better than the protagonists telling us their story in first person?
The Roots Experience is based on audio guides recorded by members of the Arizu family, their oenologists and sommeliers. The audios allow us to visualize how vines and olive trees put down roots in this land along the the different generations.
The experience begins with a warm welcome by a local musical group. The artists offer a repertoire consisting of songs that connect the guests with the Spanish, Italian and Argentine family roots.
Then, the visitor puts on headphones and immerse himself in the different stories as he walks through the vines and extensive olive groves. The sensory tour has 4 stops in which he tastes the best wines and olive oils of Luigi Bosca.
The experience finishes with a countryside style lunch and a relaxing afternoon in the gardens.
“Nature connects everything, the past with the present, and I am just continuing this story.” Alberto Arizu reflects in one of the audios.
The fact of listening to the history of the place in the voice of its protagonists generates a totally different and high-impact experience. The audios are available in Spanish, Portuguese and English and they allow us to imagine the story as if we were watching a movie in the very place where the events occurred.
The incorporation of technology, far from hardening the experience, brings us closer to people, their accents and life stories.
VineyAR: an innovative augmented hyperreality experience applied to wine tourism at Bodegas CARO
Bodegas CARO is another of the wine establishments that firmly bet on new technologies, in this case with audiovisual support. Here the guided tours are enriched thanks to the implementation of innovative educational tools generated through the use of augmented reality, which allows virtual elements to be superimposed on our vision of reality.
Unlike virtual reality, augmented reality does not simulate an experience in a parallel universe. In this case, when the user looks around through a mobile application, 2D or 3D virtual objects (characters, infographics, video, etc.) are inserted into the real world that the user is observing.
Bodegas CARO began to use this technology in its face-to-face guided tours. Under the name “VineyAR“, the augmented reality proposal is an immersive experience that makes visits more educational and attractive for the whole family. The vine and viticulture are the central themes of this experience.
The main objective for this winery is to generate an impactful visual support that allows the inclusion of its vineyards in the experience. The real vineyards are located more than 100km away from the winery, where the wines are made and visitors are received. In this sense, augmented reality technology allows to transfer the vines to the winery and to explain the visitors an essential part of viticulture: the plant and its cycle, the soil and the terroir.
This video brings you closer to the VineyAR!
Text by Mariana Álvarez, Ministry of Culture and Turism of Mendoza, in collaboration with Carolina Suárez Garcés from ProMendoza.
Photo Credits: Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Mendoza, CARO Winery, Finca El Paraíso by Luigi Bosca