Grupo Pistacyl, through its Agrícola Pistacyl service company, has started harvesting grapes in different wine-growing areas of the country where it is applying an innovative precision viticulture process that allows real-time knowledge of the performance of each vine.
The system was launched on an experimental basis during the last campaign in Castile and Leon and Extremadura and for this vintage it has also been extended to La Rioja and Andalusia, so that there will be close to 3,000 hectares of vineyards that will benefit from this technology, which Grupo Pistacyl develops together with the companies Agrícola Castellana and Ingeniería y Gestión.
The system makes it possible to carry out a weighing on the ground of the quantity of grapes that is being collected in each one of the vines, identifying the productivity of each one of them and thus drawing a detailed yield map of the plot.
This map provides precise information on the maturation and vigor index of the vines in each area, with which it is possible to determine the specific treatments, fertilizer and amount of irrigation that are necessary to apply in each one of them to improve their production and thus favor the sustainability in the cultivation of the vine.
In addition, the map serves as a basis for analyzing other data obtained through satellite and sampling carried out on the ground, information that will enable the creation of predictive models of vineyard behavior in relation to its production, which will help winegrowers and wineries to manage and organize their productions and to improve the quality of their harvests.
The system has been installed in three grape harvesting machines that Agrícola Pistacyl is using in this grape harvest campaign. It is equipped with GPS, which also allows the location of the grape harvester to be monitored via mobile phone during work and to contact the driver’s cabin to provide the appropriate instructions.
This precision viticulture process has already been used in the grape harvesting of Bodegas José Estévez, in Jerez de la Frontera (Andalusia) and Bodegas Habla in Trujillo (Extremadura), and it will be applied in the vintage of the Emina wineries, Cuatro Rayas and Miguel Arroyo Izquierdo, from the Denomination of Origin of Rueda. In September it will also arrive in the Ribera de Duero, during the grape harvest at the Durón winery, and will conclude in La Rioja.