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French consultant and wine entrepreneur Bernard Magrez uses satellite data to study the effects of drought and heat on vineyards. In orbit at an altitude of 786 km, ESA's Sentinel-2 satellite delivers images of the 90 hectares of vineyards at his Château Pape Clément in Pessac Léognan every week. These images are analysed by the British start-up Deep Planet, founded in 2018 by researchers from the University of Oxford. The scientists have used artificial intelligence (AI) to develop an analytical model to predict the ripeness and yield of the vines, which is currently used by around 60 wineries with 50,000 hectares of vineyards worldwide.
The partnership aims to help wineries understand how their vineyards are responding to climate change. "Deep Planet provides us with a cartography of the water status of the soil and the vitality of the vines throughout the season," explains Julien Ducourt, R&D manager of Bernard Magrez's four Grand Cru Classé châteaux: Château Pape Clément, Fombrauge in Saint-Emilion, La Tour Carnet in Haut-Médoc and Clos Haut Peyraguey in Sauternes.
By cross-referencing the satellite data with data from sensors used in Pape Clément's vineyards, the Deep Planet team found out which plots were most likely to be at risk from heat in the future, he said. "We would never have seen this with the naked eye and were surprised to find that some plots we thought would suffer the most are not necessarily at risk - and vice versa," Julien Ducourt told the wine magazine Vitisphere.
From the data and findings, his team wants to adapt the vineyard work: "We will influence the defoliation, the pruning height, the soil cultivation, the search for water-saving ground covers, the incorporation of biochar or the rootstock vines". This year, the analysis is to be introduced at all Bernard Magrez vineyards.
(uka / Source: Vitisphere)