The sky's the limit

Satellite photography offers the vigneron a new tool for grape selection. An unexpected but fruitful encounter of 21rst century space technology and a 1000s year old trade.

This photo of a Lynch-Bages parcel was taken this summer by a camera circling the globe on satellite FORMOSAT-2. With an astonishing precision, it shows the “vigour” of the vine, a factor we were able to correlate with grape ripeness as measured by classical sampling. To make it simple : the more red, the riper. Getting into the green, wait a litle...

Obviously this new tool can be of great help in optimizing harvesting, which can now be organized, not by entire parcels, but rather by zones within them. It allows a finer planning that follows closely the actual fruit ripeness.

Of course the preparation work as well as the actual picking is a lot more complex and more demanding.