Conceptually, winemaking is quite simple. You combine a flavored juice with sugar, acid, tannin, and yeast, remove any pectin present, and allow the yeast to do what it naturally does with as little exposure to air and contaminates as possible. When the yeast is done, the result is wine. Conceptually, that's all there is to it. In reality, it's a bit more involved. And, to a wine enthusiast producing a good bottle of wine takes continual monitoring. DionySENSE^TMhas been developed to assist these enthusiasts with consistently producing the best possible tasting wine.

1 Market Analysis

Wine has grown in popularity throughout the United States. Along with this appreciation for wine consumption, more and more Americans are making wine at home. While California accounts for the largest portion of wine production, enthusiasts from North Dakota, to Virginia, to North Carolina are catching the fever.

In analyzing this market we looked at challenges facing the home winemaker. One winemaker, Jack Keller, summed it up best:

"If there is an art to winemaking, and there certainly is, then it is the art of controlling yeast. It is the art of selecting the appropriate yeast, introducing it at the correct moment, feeding and nurturing it so as to coax it into living, reproducing and dying in a prescribed manner, and then cleaning up after it so as to preserve the fruit of its labor. It is the art of controlling its temperature, the amount and kind of air it is allowed to breathe, and feeding it the sugar and other nutrients it needs to serve man. For it is not in the nature of yeast to serve man, but rather yeast exists to serve yeast. Controlling yeast is the real art of making wine."

Thus to control yeast a winemaker must be able to monitor it; thus to accomplish this objective we developed DionySENSE^TM.

1.1 Product

DionySENSE^TM is a small wireless device that can be affixed to a wine barrel or tank to monitor key parameters during the fermentation process. These parameters include pH, temperature, alcohol levels, and sulfur dioxide. It is necessary to monitor these parameters to ensure that wine reaches the optimal levels of sugar, alcohol, and acidity to improve the quality taste and eliminate spoilage of the wine.

To begin producing wine a winemaker must purchase an extensive amount of equipment and ingredients. These supplies also include the following testing equipment

· Acid test kits

· Hydrometer

· Test Jars

· Thermometer

· Miscellaneous testing equipment (solutions, sampling instruments etc.)

Or, a home winemaker could purchase one product, DionySENSE^TM. DionySENSE^TM will continually monitor all of the factors necessary for home wine production. A winemaker can set the limits, using the DionySENSE^TM software, of each of these factors. If a factor crosses one the limits set by the winemaker, DionySENSE^TM will send an email alert. The email can also be sent to a mobile phone - so the winemaker can be made immediately aware of the problems in the cellar and so they can take the appropriate action.

DionySENSE^TM is an essential instrument for the home-wine maker. The quality, taste, texture, and look of the wine is determined during the fermentation processes. It is at these stages that the true value of DionySENSE^TMcan be realized. The essential steps in winemaking can be summarized as follows:

Figure 1: Key Steps in Wine Making

1. Extract the flavor and aroma from the base ingredients by chopping, crushing, pressing, boiling or soaking them.

2. Add sugar, acid, nutrients, and yeast to the fermentation media or liquor to achieve the proper ratio and ferment, covered, for 3 to 10 days in a primary fermentation vessel (crock, jar or polyethylene pail) at 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit.

3. Strain off the liquid from the pulp, put it (the liquid) into a secondary fermentation vessel (a carboy or jug), fit a fermentation trap (airlock) on the mouth of the bottle, and allow fermentation to proceed at 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit until all bubbling ceases (after several weeks).

4. Siphon the wine off the sediments (lees) into another clean secondary fermentation vessel. Reattach the fermentation trap. Repeat after another one or two months and again before bottling.

5. When wine is clear and all fermentation has stopped, siphon into wine bottles and cork the bottles securely. Leave bottles upright for 3-5 days and then store them on their side at 55 degrees Fahrenheit for six months (white wine) to a year (red wine) before sampling. If not up to expectations, allow to age another year or more.

* Source: www.winemaking.jackeller.net

A conscientious wine maker monitors the fermentation of the wine (Steps 2-4). It is during these steps that tests of acidity, pH, SO₂, and temperature are essential. If any of these factors deviate from established parameters a multitude of possible problems can occur. (See Figure 2 for a listing of the most common problems). However, DionySENSE^TM permits the wine-maker to continuously monitor these parameters.

Figure 2: Most Common Wine Problems Caused during Fermentation

Problem	Primary Cause	DionySENSE^TM
Overly Sweet Wine (Most common wine problem)	Temperature is too cool and the yeast remains thus the sugar can not be converted to alcohol	With DionySENSE^TM, a home winemaker can continuously monitor the TEMPERATURE of their wine. This will ensure that the temperature doesn't dip to the point where fermentation won't start.
Fermentation Won't Start	The must becomes too sweet. Fermentation occurs when liquid containing soluble sugar and trace nutrients passes through the cell walls of yeasts, is acted upon by enzymes and consumed, and alcohol and carbon dioxide are expelled through the cell walls as waste by-products. If the specific gravity of the must is too high, the alcohol and carbon dioxide cannot be expelled through the cell walls and the yeasts die of self-inflicted toxic poisoning.	With DionySENSE^TM, a home winemaker can continuously monitor the SUGAR level of the wine to ensure that level is never raised so high as to threaten the yeast, but the required sugar is still delivered.
Stuck Fermentation (When fermentation has started but stopped prematurely.	This is usually caused by a lack of nutrients or acid, or a change in temperature disagreeable to the yeast.	With DionySENSE^TM, a home winemaker can continuously monitor the ACIDIC level and TEMPERATURE of the wine to ensure that level do not threaten the yeast.
Bacteria Growth	Not enough SO₂	With DionySENSE^TM, a home winemaker can continuously monitor the SO₂ of the wine to prevent the growth of bacteria and spoilage of the wine.
Failure to Clear	This could include Pectin haze, Starch haze, Lactic acid bacteria haze. One possible cause for these hazes is high wine temperatures.	With DionySENSE^TM, a home winemaker can continuously monitor the TEMPERATURE of the wine to ensure that level do not threaten the yeast.
Medicinal Taste	Caused by too little acid in the must during fermentation	With DionySENSE^TM, a home winemaker can continuously monitor the ACIDIC of the wine to ensure that level do not threaten the yeast.

1.2 Sales Plan

DionySENSE will be targeted to the wealthy wine aficionado who wants to produce their own vintage. This product will allow them to continuously and accurately monitor their production. The home wine enthusiast is typically affluent and is typically comfortable with gadgets and technology. DionySENSE will enable users to produce a quality of wine that will impress their friends.

DionySENSE will be sold through upscale specialty retailers including Sharper Image, Brookstone, Hammacher Schlemmer, and SkyMall. The product will be offered through these channels at a price premium. It will be bundled with a winemaking software suite for home wine production, which will support the price premium of $149.

1.3 Competitive Environment

There are numerous producers and suppliers of testing equipment for the home wine maker. This does speak to the growing home market segment. However, there is currently no device that a home wine maker can employee to measure the comprehensive factors necessary in wine making. There are many individual instruments that must be purchased for each of tests conducted during fermentation and can cost a home wine enthusiasts over $50. In addition none of these devices measure these factors remotely.

1.4 Growth Plans

When our position in the home market is secure, we plan to expand our sales efforts to include larger-scale wineries such as E&J Gallo and Sutter Home. Wineries that monitor a large number of barrels could greatly benefit from DionySENSE^TM, and they are also less sensitive to following the traditional manual wine production and testing methods. We hope to build a sales force that will market specifically to these corporate accounts. The marketing force will also work with the manufacturing group and engineering to determine the feasibility of custom changes to DionySENSE^TM to secure a corporate account. Our projections include sales to corporate customers beginning in 2006. The sales price to corporate customers, who will purchase large volumes of DionySENSE^TM, will be $50 per unit.

Other potential growth options are to expand our product line to include fermentation monitoring solutions for the beer and spirits markets. However at this point these projections are beyond our five year horizon and thus are not included in the financial summary.

2 Financial Analysis

2.1 Profit Model

The DionySENSE profit model includes sales to the home wine enthusiast and eventually to larger scale wineries. The profit model is based on the sales volume figures below.

Figure 3: Sales Volume Assumptions

The following figure presents the revenue and expense data associated with the above sales volume assumptions. For more details about the assumptions associated with unit costs, development costs, and marketing and other costs see sections 3.2 (Prototype and Development Costs), 3.3 (Mass Production Costs, and 3.4 (Management and Administrative Costs) respectively. It also should be noted that since the corporate customers will be purchasing DionySENSE in large quantities they receive a significant discount off the home user list price.

Figure 4: Profit Model (Most Likely Scenario)

2.2 Prototype and Development Costs

The prototype costs includes the labor and materials to design, construct and test two prototypes. The costs also include the tooling costs for an aluminum die in 2003 and a steel die in 2004 (when production increases). In addition on-going research and development costs are also included.

Figure 5: Prototype Costs (Most Likely Scenario)

2.3 Mass Production Costs

Mass production costs include the costs to produce the amount of DionySENSE to meet demand. These estimates also calculate the variable unit costs for DionySENSE. These costs are reduced as the costs of the mote and base station technologies decrease over time.

Figure 6: Mass Production Costs (Most Likely Scenario)

2.4 Management and Administrative Costs

Management and administrative costs includes the overhead and labor associated with operating and managing the company. In 2006, the company will ramp of staff to support the marketing of DionySENSE to corporate customers.

Figure 7: Management and Administrative Costs (Most Likely Scenario)

2.5 Best and Worst Scenarios

In addition to the most likely scenarios costs and revenues were estimated given a best case and worst case scenario. This information is summarized in the following exhibits.

Figure 8: Best Case Scenario

Figure 9: Worst Case Scenario

3 Engineering Analysis

3.1 DionySENSE^TM Design

DionySENSE^TM is designed with attention to the elements of design for manufacturability (DFM). The casing is a pleasant shape devoid of sharp corners and transitions. The casing is comprised of two halves, each moldable with a single parting plane mold. These two halves are secured together with three fasteners that are recessed into the backside of the device. It is of interest to note that the parting plane does not lie on a strict geometric plane, but rather follows the contour of the DionySENSE^TM. Such aesthetic considerations are of importance to the home winemaker - the true connoisseur.

To inform the user of the status of their wine, three LED lights are integrated into the prototype. These LEDs appear green if parameters are within specified limits. If parameters (such as temperature, pH, sugar etc.) are higher than desired the red LED will be activated. If the temperature is lower, a blue LED is switched on.

Figure 10: DionySENSE

3.2 Injection Molding Analysis

The main casing of the DionySENSE^TM is, as described previously, comprised of two halves. Each half is injection molded with a simple single parting plane mold. Because of the smooth contours, the injected polymer should flow fairly freely. This may contribute to low dwell times, speeding up the production process. In addition, QA overhead may be reduced if we do not experience defects due to poor injection molding design.

Our prototype casing was made to 2.25X scale in order to accommodate the prototype mote and battery pack. With future reduction in size of the mote, we can achieve our original design intent for a small, unobtrusive monitoring device. The small projected area of our casing (five square inches) will reduce the clamp force required from the injection molding machine; again decreasing the requirements and cost of production.

We plan on molding these motes using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic, which is a standard mass production injection molding material. The butadiene toughened structure of ABS will contribute to the toughness we seek. The DionySense casing will be tough enough to withstand accidental impacts due to customer error. In addition to the excellent strength and moldability of ABS, the ABS feedstock pellets can be manufactured to customized color specifications. By having the DionySENSE^TM color embedded as-molded, we eliminate post processing steps such as priming and painting. Also, the appearance of the casing will be more resilient in that scratches and scuffs will not be obvious since the substrate is the same as the surface.

The bottom half of the DionySENSE^TM casing has reinforcement ribbing for the fastening standoffs. These ribs are sufficiently thin in comparison with the wall thickness as to not cause a concern for unsightly sinks.

3.3 Mass Production

In order to ramp up to full production several changes from the prototype design are required. Once we have completed our development of the sensor package, a unified PCB design can be made that incorporates the necessary circuitry to drive each of our sensors. The PCB should be designed to fit within the specified space allotment.

Full production steel molds will have to be made. Both halves of the DionySENSE^TM casing are of similar size and geometry. Therefore, it may be possible to shoot both parts at once in a single mold. Analysis of this hypothesis should be done, as it can lead to significant cost savings. The stainless steel molds are projected to cost $90,000.

Assembly of DionySENSE^TM SENSE requires positioning the PCB within the casing. This process will be streamlined with alignment/mounting pegs that allow the PCB to mate with the top casing. The sensor wire bundle is then routed through the side hole in the casing. The bottom casing is then set into place and fastened with three screws.

Sample Business Plan

3.1 DionySENSETM Design

3.1 DionySENSE^TM Design