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GRAPEGROWING Watching Over the Vineyards Sensors, software and a wireless network encourage efficiency and collaboration at Wente Vineyards deficit indices, the servers culled results from grape, must, tissue, wine and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetative Index) analyses for vital signs that deepened the staff's understanding of how vines grow and grapes ripen. "We've created a onestop-shop for looking at weather conditions, water input, degree days, phenolics, pH, sugars and TA," Wente says. "This combination of sensors and software allows us to follow trends like fluctuations in sugar concentration within a single vineyard block." By Thomas Ulrich Programming the remote photos by james tensuan, except where noted Karl Wente (left) of Wente Vineyards in Livermore, Calif., monitors vineyard conditions on a 60-inch flat screen showing charts and tables sourced from crews, software and sensors. K arl Wente, vice president of winemaking for Wente Family Estates, has equipped Wente Vineyards with a new generation of electronic tools for tracking growing conditions at the winery's Livermore, Calif., vineyards. Wente collaborated with AgCode, Enologix, Fruition Sciences, PrecisionAg, Tule Technologies and Wine X Ray to build a network that shaped the information electronic sensors and vineyard and winery teams collected last year into a comprehensive vision for the 2013 vintage. Like neurons—those wiry cells that fire electrical signals across the peripheral nervous system to the brain and back again—weather stations and sap-flow sensors transmit data to web-based servers. These computers calculate rates, ratios and indices, then send information via the Internet to field or winery crews 94 W in e s & V i ne s january 20 14 who can evaluate it from an over-sized monitor, laptop computer, mobile phone or other wireless device. The Fruition Sciences servers, along with the latest vineyard and winery software, transform these rhythmic signals and additional field data into timely information about Livermore Valley weather, grapes, soil and vines. Together, they are redefining the character of East Bay vineyards. For the first time last spring, vineyard and winery teams at Wente Family Estates watched the growing season unfold from the 60-inch flat screen monitor that hangs from a wall in the winery's production lab. There—they assessed the health of the vineyards by analyzing charts and tables that the servers updated as soon as the field crew, software and sensors posted the data. In addition to reporting evaporative demand, transpiration rates and water Philip Wente, former vice president of viticulture for Wente Family Estates, began collecting field data from a weather station that measured air temperature, precipitation, relative humidity and wind speed nearly 20 years ago. A single weather station could not capture enough data to manage the 1,800 acres of grapevines that line the southern hills and floor of the Livermore Valley. With several microclimates and soil types to monitor, Karl Wente and senior viticulture manager Rob Sorenson placed weather stations and electronic sensors in a half-dozen vineyards to manage and compare the growing conditions of adjacent vineyard blocks. Each weather station tracks the microclimate of the vineyard by sampling the atmosphere, then transmitting field data across the network to the servers that relay information to the vineyard and winery teams. Sorenson can retrieve weather data along with irrigation information, fruit composition and field observations Highlights • new generation of electronic tools A permits winemakers to create a comprehensive vision for their next vintage. • he versatility of the software and T sensors allows vineyard managers to operate their vineyards more efficiently. • he wireless network connects T winemaking and vineyard teams by sharing information that encourages collaborative decisions.