Vineyard improves water efficiency through technology

Ag companies are learning to do more with less water. Four years into the drought, it’s become the new normal for many companies.

The Delicato Family Vineyards in San Bernabe is rethinking its watering practices. New technology is helping age old agriculture. Compared to 2011, in 2014, DFV used 55 percent less water to irrigate and frost protect.

Soil probes have been planted throughout 200 acres of the nearly 3,000 acre vineyard. Every week, an aircraft takes images of the fields measuring mineral nutrition and canopy temperatures throughout the landscape. A picture is worth a thousand words. Yellow pixels show where vines are stressed, blue dots represent healthy vines.

“With this information,” Greg Brun of DFV explains, “We can make decisions to increase wine quality and save water.”

“So to get an idea of what the available water is to a vine, on an individual vine basis, that really allows you to focus your irrigation practices towards meeting the needs of a vine but not over-irrigating,” said Charlie Hossom, director of vineyard operations.

Because not all grape varieties are alike, every variety has specific needs. There are a lot of factors they can control, water being the biggest one. They said Monterey County, specifically the San Bernabe area near King City, is the sweet spot for all of its wine-making needs.

“If you go to the north you are only restricted to early season varieties,” Hossom said. “If you go to the south you can only do late ripe main varieties.”

And according to the latest outlook for the 2015 vintage, it’s being described as “unpredictable, fast and furious.”