cepaos
Book a demo

Comparison hub · Updated June 2026

Wine software for New Zealand wineries: how Cepaos compares with Vintrace, Ekos, Process2Wine and Vintessential

If you are choosing between Cepaos, vintrace, Ekos, Process2Wine and the Australian lab partner, this is the honest map. Updated June 2026.

Built for the NZ Wine Act 2003Encrypted cloud with daily backups
Request a guided demoCreate your accountSee the full NZ compliance reference

Step 1

Pick your scenario

The right answer depends less on a feature checklist and more on where you are right now. Three plain situations cover most NZ wineries we talk to.

First proper winery system

You are moving off spreadsheets and a shared drive for the first time. You want one platform that handles cellar capture, Wine Act 2003 records, MPI exports and a cellar door, without a six-month implementation project.

Create your account

Leaving vintrace, Ekos or Process2Wine

You already run a winery tool but the renewal cost, the cellar-door gap or the missing MPI workflow no longer adds up. You want a clean migration path and honest answers about what we replace and what we do not.

See the migration map

Already use Vintessential, want an ERP

You keep your NATA-accredited lab partner. You need the rest, production records, compliance, cellar door, finance, multi-market export, and a clean way to import lab certificates into the lot history.

See how lab data flows in

Step 2

The four platforms, honestly

Three are pure competitors. One, Vintessential, is a complementary lab partner. Every entry below gets a “where they shine” and a “where Cepaos picks up”, because no single tool wins every category.

vintrace

Pure competitor

Cloud-based wine production software, founded in Australia and part of Encompass Technologies since 2022 (encompasstech.com/vintrace, checked 2026-10-22).

Where they shine

  • New Zealand excise duty set-up documented in its help centre, with Xero as the accounting package
  • Receives Brix and temperature from TankNet and VinWizard tank controllers in its lab module
  • Mobile app on Android and iOS for work orders, barcode scanning and lab entry

Where Cepaos picks up

  • Native Wine Act 2003 records and MPI Export Eligibility Certificate workflow, not a spreadsheet bolt-on
  • Cellar door, DTC and Wine Club commerce included alongside production, not sold separately
  • Transparent NZD pricing online and a 30-minute guided demo on your own workflows

Ekos

Pure competitor

A global craft-beverage platform with strong batch traceability and cost-per-unit analytics across beer, cider and wine in one tenant.

Where they shine

  • Genuine multi-vertical depth if you also make beer or cider under the same roof
  • Mature batch costing primitives refined across many breweries and cideries
  • Active international user community and a recognised brand in craft beverage software

Where Cepaos picks up

  • Wine-pure depth, Wine Act 2003, SWNZ scorecard and NZBN validation
  • Cellar door, DTC, Wine Club and multi-market export across 24 native locales in one platform
  • Privacy Act 2020 controls aligned to the IPPs, with a built-in breach register

Process2Wine

Pure competitor

A New Zealand-built cellar logbook and work-order tool aimed at small boutique cellars who want simple capture and a short learning curve.

Where they shine

  • Affordable entry point and simple onboarding for very small cellars under about 500 hL
  • Narrow scope means a fast learning curve, runs comfortably on a single cellar tablet
  • NZ-based support team with personal access to the product owner

Where Cepaos picks up

  • Everything beyond the logbook: MPI Export Eligibility data, SWNZ, NZBN and the full audit trail
  • Cellar door, DTC, Wine Club, finance, multi-entity holding consolidation and commercial CRM
  • A clean upgrade path when you outgrow a logbook tool and want to consolidate onto one ERP

Vintessential

Complementary partner

Wine test kits, founded in Australia in 1995; its laboratories trade as Winechek, NATA-accredited (vintessentials.com, winechek.com, checked 2026-10-23). Not a software platform.

Where they shine

  • Test kits for free and total SO2, glucose-fructose, malic and acetic acid
  • NATA-accredited laboratory services (ISO/IEC 17025) under the Winechek name

Where Cepaos picks up

  • The winery ERP layer: production, compliance, commerce, finance
  • Lab results on the lot history, by manual entry or CSV import
  • You keep your lab partner and run Cepaos for everything that happens before and after the assay

Step 3

How wineries actually use this in practice

Illustrative scenarios, typical situations across New Zealand wineries. Not actual customer quotes.

A Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc producer running 25,000 cases

Came off Vintrace because the cellar door, Wine Club and DTC stack was a permanent line of side projects in spreadsheets and a third-party shop. They kept the same blend logic but folded the MPI Export Eligibility data and NZBN validation into one platform. Annual software spend dropped because three tools collapsed into one.

A Central Otago Pinot Noir boutique making 1,800 cases

Chose Cepaos over Ekos because their entire production is wine, there is no beer or cider line to justify multi-vertical breadth. They wanted Wine Act 2003 records, the SWNZ scorecard and a Wine Club out of the box rather than a generic batch model adapted to wine after the fact.

A Hawke's Bay Bordeaux blend estate making 12,000 cases

Kept Vintessential for the lab because the NATA accreditation and sensorial panels are non-negotiable for their export buyers. They added Cepaos for production records, MPI exports, the cellar door and EU multi-market e-invoicing. Lab certificates land in the lot history via CSV import today, with a direct API on the roadmap.

Step 4

The compact comparison

Twelve rows across three themes, what matters most to NZ wineries we hear from. For the full feature reference, see the NZ compliance page linked below the table.

Compliance and admin

What the regulator, MPI and Sustainable Winegrowing NZ want from you.

CapabilityCepaosvintraceEkosProcess2WineVintessential (lab)
NZ wine records and label rules
Wine Act 2003 record-keeping and Wine Specifications Notice 2006
Yes
Not verifiedNot verifiedNot verifiedNot verified
NZ geographical indication validation
Registered NZ wine GIs (IPONZ): Marlborough, Central Otago, Hawke's Bay and more
Yes
Not verifiedNot verifiedNot verifiedNot verified
MPI export certificate workflow
Export Eligibility Certificate batch flags and submission trail
Yes
Not verifiedNot verifiedNot verifiedNot verified
Sustainability scorecard
Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) ingestion and reporting
Yes
Not verifiedNot verifiedNot verifiedNot verified

Production and cellar

What happens on the cellar floor, from crush to bottling.

CapabilityCepaosvintraceEkosProcess2WineVintessential (lab)
Mobile cellar capture
iOS and Android apps for crush, fermentation, additions and rackings
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Not verified
Lot tracking and traceability
End-to-end lot history from fruit intake through finished goods
Yes
Yes
Yes
Not verifiedNot verified
Lab integration
Vintessential and third-party lab certificate ingestion into lot history
Yes
Not verifiedNot verifiedNot verifiedNot verified
Multi-vintage barrel ledger
Barrel-level tracking across multiple vintages with blend decomposition
Yes
Yes
Not verifiedNot verifiedNot verified

Commercial and multi-market

What you sell, where you sell it and how you bill for it.

CapabilityCepaosvintraceEkosProcess2WineVintessential (lab)
Cellar door and direct-to-consumer
Tasting room POS, online shop and Wine Club allocations
Yes
Not verifiedNot verifiedNot verifiedNot verified
United States DTC compliance
50-state shipping matrix for direct-to-consumer wine sales
Yes
Not verifiedNot verifiedNot verifiedNot verified
Native multi-market compliance
24 native locales across EU, UK, LATAM, US and AU/NZ
Yes
Not verifiedNot verifiedNot verifiedNot verified
Transparent online pricing
NZD pricing visible online and a 30-minute guided demo
Yes
Not verifiedNot verifiedNot verifiedNot verified

Full feature reference: /en-NZ/cepaos-newzealand-compliance

Not verified: we have not checked this point against a public source from that vendor. It does not mean the feature is missing.

Frequently asked

The six questions we hear most

Should I leave Vintrace if I'm in Marlborough?

Not automatically. If your entire problem is multi-lot blend decomposition with a well-trained cellar team, Vintrace is mature and works. The honest reasons to switch are usually a missing cellar door, the lack of an MPI Export Eligibility workflow, or the cost of stitching three tools together.

Full reference

Can Cepaos really replace Ekos for craft producers?

If you only make wine, yes, and you get Wine Act 2003 records, MPI exports and the SWNZ scorecard natively rather than mapped onto a generic batch model. If you also brew beer or make cider under one tenant, Ekos genuinely does multi-vertical and Cepaos does not.

Full reference

Do I have to drop Vintessential to use Cepaos?

No. Vintessential is a NATA-accredited lab, not a software competitor. You keep the lab partner you trust and use Cepaos for everything that is not analytical chemistry, production records, MPI submissions, the cellar door and finance. Lab certificates flow in via CSV today.

Full reference

Does Cepaos cover the NZ Wine Act 2003 the same way Vintrace does?

Yes: record-keeping, audit trail and label rules are native modules, not a spreadsheet bolt-on. We check variety, vintage and GI claims against the 85% rule of the Wine Regulations 2021 for registered NZ geographical indications. The full feature reference lives at the link below this FAQ.

Full reference

What about MPI Export Eligibility Certificate workflow?

Cepaos generates the batch eligibility flags, attaches the supporting lot history and keeps the submission trail in one place. Vintrace, Ekos and Process2Wine do not ship this workflow natively as of June 2026, which is why exporting wineries often run an Excel file alongside their main tool.

Full reference

Where is my data stored?

Cepaos stores data encrypted with Supabase in São Paulo, Brazil (AWS sa-east-1), with daily backups. NZ Privacy Act 2020 controls are aligned to the Information Privacy Principles with a built-in breach register and the appropriate cross-border transfer notices.

Full reference

See Cepaos in your winery: a 30-minute guided demo

A 30-minute guided demo on your own workflows, no commitment.

Request a guided demoCreate your accountRead the full NZ compliance reference

Comparison reflects publicly available information as of June 2026. Submit corrections via legal@cepaos.com, Cepaos updates the comparison within 5 business days. Trademark holders retain all rights to their marks.