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winemaker can carry a laser scanner up and down each row
in winter, once the leaves have fallen, to measure the size
and strength of shoots—cross-referencing the data with past
atmospheric readings to see the long-term impact of weather
changes on growth. The 360viti might also use readings from
sleeves wrapped around selected vines to measure sap flow.
Co-founder Thibaut Scholasch says Fruition Sciences looks at
a broad range of KPIs, or key performance indicators. “We’re
establishing a real-time health report,” he says, “essentially
trying to consider the [entire] vineyard as if it were a living
organism, like a human being.”
Scholasch, who’s from northern France, began his
career as a winemaker in Chile and Tasmania, Australia,
before developing the research program at Robert Mondavi
Winery in Northern California. That’s when his interest in
this data-based approach began. Once Scholasch had earned
a doctorate in viticulture, he began developing what’s now
360viti with his co-founder, Sébastien Payen. That was
11 years ago. Since then the company has used cutting-edge
technology to achieve twin goals: better wine and lower
costs, whether environmental or economic.
To improve a particular vintage, a grower can strat-
ify harvesting, so only the vines currently producing
grand cru- worthy grapes are picked and crushed together.
Reducing costs is often related to
water, a precious resource and
major expense in drought-prone
California. Scholasch’s work has
helped dispel traditional myths
about when to water a vine: It’s
wrongheaded to simply assume
a wilting, droopy plant is thirsty.
In fact, as his data have shown,
watering in response to such
behavior can backfire. “It builds
dependency on irrigation and cre-
ates junkie-like habits in the plant,
always in need of a fix. The plant
could just be adjusting to the lack of moisture in the air.”
No wonder that Fruition Sciences claims it can reduce
water usage per acre by two Olympic-size swimming pools
per year; one Napa-based vineyard went from watering every
three days to only once every three weeks after signing up for
the service. Scholasch and his team have recently concluded
a three-year collaboration with the nonprofit Energy Research
Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., examining how reduced water
use can translate into energy savings—and how its vineyard
data could be used on other green spaces.
Scholasch is looking to expand 360viti’s reach in another
way: How and how well a plant stores carbohydrates can pre-
dict its short-term productivity and long-term vigor. Skinnier
shoots correlate closely with higher-quality fruit for wine. He
describes his mission with the zeal of a healthy-eating advo-
cate. “We’re doing this for the sake of plant health, longev-
ity, fruit production, and wine quality.”The man wandering through the vineyard looks lost. He’s
brandishing a handheld sensor that resembles a self-checkout
scanner in the supermarket or perhaps a flashlight. He pauses
as he walks down the rows of vines, holding the device care-
fully against bunches of grapes. There’s no flash or beep as he
does so; inside the grapes, though, beams of shortwave light
from the gadget agitate molecules of anthocyanin. The com-
bination of wavelengths is tailor-made to resonate with these
color compounds, which indicate a grape’s ripeness.
The pigments fluoresce under
the beam of the gadget, allow-
ing it to log their presence, like a
teacher asking pupils to raise their
hand. It’s a process that’s repeated
weekly, starting as the fruit begins
to turn in July, with the readings
banked to a central server. There,
artificial intelligence compares
them with historic and theoretical
data: Is a given bunch riper now—
higher levels of anthocyanins —or
is it past peak, with lower levels?
How do its current readings com-
pare with parallel data taken the previous week?
This science, which helps determine the best moment
to harvest each vine, is already discreetly in use at some of
the world’s finest vineyards, including Château Latour in
Bordeaux and Napa Valley’s Ovid. “Without that informa-
tion, you are very much prone to doing the same thing, year
in and year out, because you know that works for sure,” says
Austin Peterson, winemaker at Ovid. “But you might only be
achieving 70% of what you can potentially do.” Much-lauded
roving winemaker Aaron Pott is also a fan.
Wineries that sign up for Fruition Sciences’ 360viti pro-
cess, which starts at $10,000 for a year, won’t rely on just
this wand, though. The mad- scientist-like viticulture pro-
gram features other futuristic elements aimed at finessing
winemaking, each customized to the user’s location. They
might include installing static sensors in key locations or
measuring wind speed, light, or atmospheric changes. A COURTESY FRUITION SCIENCESWINE Bloomberg Pursuits September 30, 2019Fruition Sciences makes gadgets
that take the guesswork out of grape
harvesting. By Mark EllwoodWine’s
Magic Wand