Wines & Vines
Does Technology Have A Role To Play In The Future Of The Wine Industry?
June 30, 2021
Winemaking has been around for thousands of years. Even though the basic principle hasn’t changed since ancient times, new technologies have impacted the wine industry throughout the centuries.
Today, the most prominent wineries use advanced technologies to improve the quality of their products and overall production.
Going Online
Today, any company that wants to make it in the business world has to have a well-designed, well-optimized website to showcase goods and services.
For example, suppose you already have a website, and you invested in optimization and marketing, but you do not see any traffic. In that case, you should invest in a broken link building service.
Remote Irrigation Management
Ensuring that all vines get enough water is difficult, especially when a winery has hundreds of acres of land to cover.
That’s why some of the biggest names in the industry started using drones with built-in thermal infrared cameras that quickly identify signs of drought. The drones fly over the vines taking photos which are then compared with previous photos.
When coupled with advanced machine-learning models, wineries can quickly sort their vines into three different stress levels with fantastic accuracy. That way, winemakers know which plants need more water and fertilizer, as well as details about dead plants, pests, and so on.
Wine Cellar Management Apps
Today, wineries use special wine cellar management apps to track inventory in real-time. Most of these apps are available for free, but there are premium options as well. In practice, these apps are excellent for keeping track of the entire cellar inventory.
Finding the Perfect Picking Timing
Traditionally, winemakers had to visit the fields often to find the best time for harvesting grapes. Then, they used chemical analysis to measure sugar levels and acidity. When the sugar levels reach the right amount, grapes are picked, and the sugar is turned into alcohol.
Winemakers need dead fruit to produce specific aromas and flavors, which is a detailed process that’s easy to get wrong. Today, things have changed a lot. A simple handheld device is all you need to measure sugar levels as well as cell death.
Yield and Quality Estimation Software
No matter what crop is being grown, every farmer depends on its yield. However, everyone knows that it’s impossible to guess the yield before the crops are harvested because it depends on many factors.
Estimating the yield early on is a big deal for winemakers because it helps them do the math and figure out where to invest their resources to get the best results. That includes management of water, fertilizer, staff, and barrels needed to store the wine.
The traditional methods have an accuracy between 60 and 70%.
By using big data and machine learning, winemakers can make predictions up to 90% accurately.
Final Words
The technologies above are just some of the significant advances that will transform the wine industry and bring it to a whole new level.
There are many more out there, so keep exploring.
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