Project -- VINTAGE

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NTSG Vintage Project

The use of this Project is to adapt and promote NASA-developed scientific methods and technologies as tool(s) for site-specific and regional crop stress management, using the premium wine industry as a testbed.

Click here for a slide show describing the NTSG Vintage Project

Winegrowers worldwide have recognized for centuries that grapes harvested from different areas of the vineyard can produce wines with unique flavors. Even under constant variety and rootstock, the feel, bouquet, color, body and overall wine quality is influenced by differing physical factors within vineyard: microclimate, slope, aspect, soil type and water-holding capacity. In pursuit of final wine quality, winegrowers generally strive to produce and combine grapes of similar biochemical characteristics and ripeness into uniform wine "lots." Also generally speaking, inducement of moderate water stress in the vineyard tends to enhance ultimate wine quality. We propose to use a combination of remote sensing and ecosystem modeling to address NRA Topic 4.3 - "Resource Management and Precision Agriculture." The Project objectives are: 1) to develop remote sensing as a tool for field segmentation and optimization of grape harvest, 2) to adapt and validate an ecosystem model (that uses remotely sensed input) as a tool for improved management of vineyard water stress, and 3) to test recently-developed techniques for remote sensing of water stress indicators in discontinuous crop canopies. The tasks we describe were developed in close consultation with the wine industry and are designed to directly address grower needs.

The Project will build on results of a 1997 NASA pilot-project that used remote sensing to map crop vigor in Napa Valley vineyards. Results suggested that remote sensing technology can improve harvest planning with respect to crop and wine-lot uniformity, and positively affect final wine quality. The approach, if borne out by further testing and refinement, is of enormous relevance to the (premium) wine industry. Notably, the pilot-project was enabled by prior NASA science investment in remote sensing of plant canopy biomass. The Project will also capitalize on past NASA investment in development of the Regional Hydro-Ecological Simulation System, used to simulate hydrologic routing and biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Salient characteristics of RHESSys include: 1) uses remotely sensed input, 2) accounts for topographic controls on hydrology and microclimate, 3) operates at multiple spatial scales, 4) computes complete water (evapotranspiration, water stress) and carbon (leaf, woody and fruit production) budgets at daily time step for each point across the landscape, and 5) has been successfully validated in various natural ecosystems. Finally the Project will evaluate, for the first time in vineyards, a recently published USDA technique for remotely sensing crop water deficit index in partially vegetated canopies.

This project will include 1) development of improved tools for viticultural (and agricultural) management, 2) increased demand for commercial remote sensing services, 3) increased popular demand for NASA's satellite-based imagery, 4) heightened public awareness of NASA activity and relevance. Our Collaborators include the Robert Mondavi Winery (Oakville, CA), Terra Spase Vineyard Mapping (Napa, CA), Vestra Resources, Inc. (Redding, CA) and the Bay Area Shared Information Consortium (Mountain View, CA). The Team will undertake significant outreach</underline> efforts to the winegrowing industry and greater agribusiness through the Napa and Sonoma County Agricultural Extension Offices, the Wine Country GIS Users Group, at least one Workshop, conference presentations, publication in trade and science journals, the Internet, and the popular press.

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