Wine Trek: The Next Fermentation

The vision of a winery in most people's minds is one of bucolic rolling hills, with rows and rows of corduroy-like vines, aligned perfectly parallel to one another, with the loving rays of the sun slipping behind a distant horizon. It is a place where artisans nurture the sometimes contrary vines, lovingly coaxing them to be their best self and give back a bounty for all to admire and enjoy. While in some romantic way, this is vaguely true, there is indeed a struggle going on behind the thin curtain that separates romantic vision from reality.

The truth, as it almost always does, lies somewhere in between. The winemaker faces a barrage of challenges, many of which are beyond his control. Weather, throughout the growing period and into the harvest, can ruin an otherwise perfect season in a mere moment. Pests of many types feast on various parts of the vine, and fungi with gentle names like powdery and downy mildew can wreak havoc on a vineyard when every other aspect of that same vineyard is just right.

To many, the view of a winery is as much art as science. It's seen as a sunburnt, chiseled-faced farmer walking his vines and a winemaker taking the "pulse" of his oak barrels, waiting for that moment when all things are inherently right. The truth, however, is and has been much different. There has been a strong and consistent push to incorporate technological advances into the vineyard, cellar, and distribution phases of this tradition-heavy process. The following are six areas where the wine industry is leaning heavily on technology, and for some areas, it represents their future.

From Sky to Vines: Drone Usage in Vineyards

Think of drones as helpful eyes in the sky, equipped with different kinds of cameras and sensors. It is important to remember that drones are only as good as the sensors they carry. Essentially, they are "sensor trucks" in the sky. Drones generally utilize RGB (red, green, blue), multispectral, hyperspectral, and thermal imaging cameras, as well as LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensors in the vineyard.

Thanks to GPS and autopilot technology, drones can be commanded to fly precise, repeatable patterns that maximize data collection. This allows for the analysis of changes in vine health, the effects of recent weather, and early detection of infestations or nutrient deficiencies. This early detection enables the implementation of corrective measures. Drones can gather data on water shortage and disease pressure in the vineyard, allowing for quicker action to preserve quality. The ability to recognize change by flying repetitive patterns over time is a critical element of drone usage in vineyards.

Additionally, RGB and LIDAR have shown an ability to aid in crop yield estimates, showing great promise in this critical area. Being able to estimate crop yield allows for critical decisions to ensure harvest quality, such as "green harvesting," and to accurately estimate tank space requirements. Multispectral, hyperspectral, and thermal imaging cameras are especially useful at detecting grape plant water stress.

The use of drones can bolster sustainability efforts by facilitating localized and minimized spraying based on vine health. These airborne devices can play a dual role- not only identifying areas in need but also handling the spraying themselves. Their ability to deliver targeted dosages based on precise location data is a major advantage.

In addition to their health management role, these unmanned aerial vehicles also offer security benefits. They can conduct overflights during hours when the vineyard is most vulnerable to trespassing or vandalism. This not only protects the valuable crop but also does so with reduced labor and heightened efficiency.

In essence, embracing this technology results in direct labor-saving benefits, paving the way for more cost-effective and efficient vineyard management.

Precision Viticulture: Making Informed Decisions

With the advent of products like Sentinel Vine Manager, Vitivisor and others, the ability to finely monitor vineyard health and requirements is being realized. By utilizing a combination of weather stations, soil sensors and drones, viticulturists collect a wide array of information to include soil moisture, nitrogen, biomass and weed and disease levels. Pairing this with historical data, decisions on irrigation, fertilizers, fungicides, and herbicides can be more finely tuned to minimize the amounts utilized. With Sentinel Vine Manager, through the use of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), which is essentially an enhanced GPS, the amount of granularity (subcentimeter accuracy vs. GPS of six meters) is localized to the individual vine. Once mapped, each vine is geofenced and will appear on the handheld GNSS receiver as you approach the vine and will provide all historical data on that individual vine from its planting. This historical data can also be used in a predictive way with the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Through the life cycle of the vineyard, spatial production rates can be tracked at a level that can indicate which vines are underperforming, thus allowing you to concentrate relative resources to correct, if possible, or replace if necessary.

One of the great values of systems like this is its granularity of information and the ability to analyze full or partial vineyards to track performance trends. From a perspective of global warming, it allows for immediate access to data from various sensing sources and allows for fine tuning vineyard management so you can act instead of react to the changes in your vineyard.

Use of Artificial Intelligence: Predict, Protect, Perfect

As mentioned in the discussion on Precision Viticulture, AI can be used to create a predictive model based on historical data and more current trends, thus alerting growers to future issues in a more timely manner. However, that is just the beginning.

In the cellars, AI can utilize data collected on fermentation and aging processes to make critical decisions that directly affect the final quality of the product. AI is also being utilized to analyze thousands of wines and their rankings with consumers and thus, aid in creating market-based blends tied to drinker preferences and purchase data.

AI can also manifest itself in AI-based tasting. Whether it be by creating datasets of wines based on a group of wine characteristics such as color, alcohol level, and alkalinity or by the utilization of gas chromatography, AI can process this data and identify with fine accuracy the wine type and location of origin with almost 100% accuracy.

Conquering Fraud with Wine Blockchain Technology

Fraud within the premium wine market is estimated to be an astounding 20 to 50%. By implementing available Blockchain technology, the potential exists to minimize this loss. At its simplest, the initial blockchain begins a digital ledger of transactions/movements of the wine using a digital capsule which is affixed to the bottle at the point of production. Information is added to every participant’s ledger, or “block in the chain”. The critical concept is that this is a decentralized record-keeping system, making it extremely difficult to nefariously manipulate the blockchain path and information. Thus, every stage of the wine supply chain is recorded, from where the fruit was grown and when it was harvested, to its distribution path. As the bottle passes hands in the distribution process, there is also the capability to record the climatic conditions in which it traveled.

This technology alone has the potential to truly provide a “vineyard to consumer” trail and will certainly have an impact on the bustling counterfeit wine trade. It is also envisioned that all trade documentation, which can be voluminous, would be included as a blockchain element.

Intelligent Wine Bottles/E-Labels for Wine

This has some similarities with Blockchain in that they both are trying to create a data log of production information and movement. A 4x4 QR code can have at a minimum, information about the vineyard and wine production to include videos, but it can also provide increased traceability and transparency. Blockchain is, undoubtedly, a more robust system with a higher cost and so the usage of a QR code based system is much more likely to be implemented in wines that do not carry a premium price tag, although it can be used in conjunction with Blockchain.

Robotic Assistance in Viticulture

While robots have been in the vineyard for several years, they have most often been in support roles such as eliminating nutrient and water competing weeds, all the while collecting accurately localized data for precision viticulture systems. Some robots have taken on the tasks of pruning utilizing AI algorithms to map each vine. The next great leap for robots in the vineyard will be to operate in all environments and slopes and develop the AI dexterity to perform complex pruning on even the highest valued grapes. Huge labor savings are on the way when this is fully realized.

In the cellar, it is much more straightforward and these robotic systems can be deployed in a more traditional way much like a modern distillery utilizes and monitors operations. This involves primarily the movement of material and monitoring and controlling of various environmental conditions.

And as with the cellar, long-term storage of wine with the aid of robotic systems for consumers is also already in play.

So, what's the verdict?

As was conveyed to me recently by a winemaker of a high-end, tradition-rich segment of the wine world, there is an expectation that premium wines will be produced through artisanal processes without an overt nod to technology. I think there is truth in that statement but I also believe there can be a balance between tradition and technological innovation even at the highest end of the wine spectrum. Global warming and the shifting of geographical realities in the wine world require a much more finely tuned instrument to create wines that meet the traditional expectations of that location. Decisions must be made not reactively but in response to factors that technology allows you to see before they happen. This is the great gift that technology and innovation can provide and the world of wine is just beginning to race to embrace it.