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Uncorking innovation with Treasury Wine Estates in Napa

The ancient craft of wine making conjures romantic notions of hand-picked vines, and bare feet crushing grapes.

owever, wine production today is a thoroughly high-tech affair. Degree programs in viticulture and oenology, from Cornell University to UC Davis, reflect advances in the industry. Professors and courses there now focus on topics like “environmental control, and modified atmospheres,” “the genetic engineering of industrial microorganisms,” or “analytical instrumentation,” to name a few.

What wine makers are going after with applied technology and science is a more profitable piece of an already sizable market. Consumers spent $38 billion on U.S.-made wines alone in 2015 according to the annual Wine Industry Metrics report by Wines & Vines Analytics. Using tech and science to gain every possible advantage can help producers keep their costs and prices down, their environmental footprint small, and their wines as high-quality as possible. More and better data, if analyzed properly, can also help wineries cope with extreme weather, from droughts to floods.

Farmers of every kind have used government research and data from agencies like the US Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency in planning and managing their crops. President Donald Trump has required that agencies (including the USDA and EPA) stop releasing their findings to the public until they go through administrative reviews and approvals. Although most farms are already paying tech companies and consultants for some of the data that they use to make business decisions, the new administration’s “gag rules” could drive even more demand, and require farmers to spend more time and money on technology.

One of the best-known ways to gather agricultural data these days is seen in the skies. Vineyards and other farms have long used camera-strapped planes, helicopters or drones, and data gathered by satellites, to capture what’s going on in their fields below. But there’s an equally exciting new class of sensors, apps, and other hardware used in the fields, too. TechCrunch took a tour of some of the major vineyards operated by Treasury Wine Estates in Napa Valley to get a first hand look at what’s state of the art.

Read more at source: TechCrunch

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