Fine wines in the vaults

Winery modernizes high-bay AS/RS

 

Remstalkellerei, based in the Swabian town of Weinstadt-Beutelsbach, is the fifth largest winery in Germany. About 150 different grapevine varieties from 20 communities are grown here. The company started more than 60 years ago in the basement of the Beutelsbach canonry. Today's winery was put into operation in 1950. The facility was enlarged during the1970s and 80s and a gradual renovation of the oldest buildings began in 2001. This also included the installation of a new bottling plant, upgrades of 2 third-party Storage/Retrieval (S/R) machines and the introduction of the viad@tONE warehouse management system (WMS) for the high-bay Automated Storage/Retrieval System (AS/RS) which is directly linked to the S/R machines. viastore was entrusted with modernizing the logistical installations.
But where can we find the high-bay warehouse on the Beutelsbach premises? Situated underground is not only the wooden barrel cellar, which is the largest in Württemberg with a capacity of 700,000 liters, but also the high-bay AS/RS, which is therefore actually a "low-bay warehouse". Back in 1978, it was dug 10 meters deep into the mountain and consists of 90 throughput channels that are loaded via the WMS by the S/R machines. Wherever possible, the same types of wine are stored in one special area. Since the WMS manages every storage location per channel, it is also possible to store one type of wine in different channels.

The Remstalkellerei winery has a total storage capacity of 32 million liters. Every year, it produces 6 to 7 million liters of wine and generates net sales of 15 to 16 million euros. Trollinger wines, grown on 230 acres (one third of the vineyards) and Riesling (one quarter) form the backbone of the Remstal wineries. Remstalkellerei produces notable wines matured to typically fine standards which have been awarded three stars.