Viñas del Vero – First winery to use drones during Harvest 2014

Drones make simpler the task to analyze the different qualities of the grape and its maturation state

Viñas del Vero has, in the 2014 vintage introduced technological developments as relevant as the use of drones. These drones are equipped with thermal cameras which are able to “see” in wavelengths what the human eye does not perceive. These devices have an incredible power of visualization: they can examine every corner of the vineyard from photographs taken from the heights.

With this tool you can view high resolution images of the state of the leaves of the vineyard (the size of an average smartphone screen). Thus, we can analyze the health status of each leaf, the water stress, its content in chlorophyll and anthocyanins, and many other technical parameters.

This technology for precision viticulture allows Viñas de Vero to perform custom control work on the vineyard, such as individualized pruning, variable dosing of fertilizers and plant protection, as well as a deep understanding of the production and vintage quality potential to separate grades at the time of collection.

In the words of José María Ayuso, “despite the use of these technological advances, these tools will never replace the necessary monitoring and control undertaken by growers and winemakers to achieve the highest levels of product quality. Enology and viticulture never cease to be an art, a specialty in which daily human intervention is absolutely necessary. ”