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CO VER S T OR Y Apps make it easy To make it even easier and faster, many companies have developed—or, more likely, are developing—"apps" (compact applica- tions) that reside on users' smartphones to connect immediately and very legibly, just as Wines & Vines has an app for its digital edition that makes it easy to read on mobile devices. Here's a quick look at some of the products and how viticulturists are using them. Premiere Viticulture (premierevit. com) offers a real-time Internet-based service that allows users to efficiently manage and monitor all critical vineyard information from pruning through wine production. The company offers three modules. PremiereData provides an electronic "filing system." All it requires is a com- puter (or a smartphone) and access to the Internet. It tracks elements such as clones, rootstocks, trellis systems, spacing, weather data, petiole and soil samples, fertilizers, nutrient sprays, pressure bomb readings, pesticides, maturity tracking and harvest results. Premiere Decision helps grow- ers make viticultural and farming decisions based on information the users collect. It includes tools for jobs such as irrigation management and scheduling, pesticide work orders and governmental reporting, fertilizer, cover crop and soil amendment work orders, plus crop forecasting to give you the information you need. When deci- sions are made, a work order is created and stored electronically. Premiere Vision provides a series of integrated planning tools. These tools include farm plans and budgets and activ- ity schedules for every single block in a grower's vineyard. Premiere Decision's schedules, reports and work orders can be downloaded to Excel or saved as PDFs and printed or emailed to anyone, anywhere at anytime. Work orders in the field Kirk Grace, the vineyard manager at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Napa, Calif., uses Premier Vit (as it's nicknamed) to store data about the vineyards he manages. "We track characteristics, rootstocks, clones, acres, etc." Grace adds, "We typically write a work order on the computer, then bring it up in the field." Although Grace generally uses an iPhone, he likes the iPad's bigger screen and better visibility for many applications. He also uses the phone or tablet to check weather and access the California soil map at Soilweb from the University of California, Berkeley. He also likes Cel- larhand, which has modules for both vi- ticulture and winemaking and even finds the mobile devices useful for accessing the Tee Jet nozzle catalog. "This technology is very powerful," he says, adding that some programs are more interesting than they are useful. Barbour Vineyards of Napa, Calif., adopted Premiere Viticulture software in January and bought a "fleet" of iPads that viticulturist Kelley S. Miller says have been excellent tools in the field. "We also began updating our website more regu- larly to post updates for our clients." ing, work orders and pesticide use. Walsh Vineyard Management of Napa, Calif., has used Meristem software for about three years, says viticulturist Towle Merritt. "We've structured our company around Meristem," he says. "It provides a way to collect information and make it useful. It touches every part of what we do." The system collects everything from irrigation data and crop estimates to time cards, then produces reports for internal use and clients. All the information is available in real time or close to it. The company manages about 3,500 acres. About 60 clients communicate with Walsh using the system; another 30 of Walsh's staff use the system. Walsh uses Garmin Juno devices, which combine data collection, cell data and cell phones. "We found them easier to use for heavy data collection than something like an iPhone," which has a tiny touch screen keyboard, he says. They tried some other devices before choos- ing the Juno. "We can move the software to better hardware as it becomes available." Merritt is a big fan of the sys- Matt Lamborn, owner of Pacific Geodata, provides GIS-based mapping, analysis and consulting services. Miller says the database consolidated spreadsheets and other information that had been on numerous computers and al- lowed everyone access. She also uses it to save photos of vines and notes that can be shared with colleagues and clients. Meristem (meristemtech.com) is anoth- er comprehensive program for vineyards. It can also manage and generate reports and display vineyard block maps with an interactive display that includes vineyard features collected using a global position- ing system (GPS). Vineyard managers also use it to main- tain vineyard activity status maps, field pest and scouting reports, vine moisture status reports, irrigation history reports, yield estimate reports, fruit maturity/har- vest lab reports, harvest yield and status reports and more. In addition, it can be used for tracking labor, activities, harvest and harvest load- tem. "I can't imagine going back," he says, comparing it to the days before cell phones. "It's hard to imagine life without it." Merritt admits that at first the company was hesitant to provide too much transparency to clients, but opening up has worked well. "An unexpected impact was to raise everyone's standards. It even raises the need for clients to stay current." Of course, some data is restricted; cli- ents can only see their own information, not that of other vineyards. Monitor water pressure remotely Paul Goldberg of Bettinelli Vineyard Management, Napa, Calif., uses his smartphone to monitor weather condi- tions at vineyards he manages from Carneros to Pope Valley, and the company is installing products that let him do something about it. The big concerns are heat spikes and frost, of course. Goldberg can monitor temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, soil temperature and moisture among other data from Picovale weather stations in the vineyards. These weather stations are solar powered and include their own satellite or cell links, depending on the location. (Continued on page 29) Wines & Vines JULY 2011 27