The secret to great wine is great grapes. Great grapes are the result of close observation to assure they are water just enough.
The right amount of irrigation may be hard to judge or distribute, but many growers say it is simply based on gut instinct. “Without scientific data guiding how we irrigated, we often experience excess vigor,” Sustin Peterson, assistant winemaker at Ovid Napa Valley told Network World. The excess vigor often leads to under ripe grapes and other undesirable characteristics.
In 2007 Ovid Napa Valley received management assistance from Fruition Sciences. They recently devised an innovated way for winemakers to have instant access to date via computer about the vines’ water-evaporation levels relative to environment conditions.
The sensors measure how much water is going in and out of the plant and sends the information to the computer equipment that relates that information to the current temperature. A “stress profile” is then created and growers can determine based on this how much water to give each plant.
Peterson feels the system has been successful. He can greatly notice the difference in the fruit’s quality.
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