WaPo: NASA Helps Identify Virginia’s Prime Vineyards

vineyard_300pxThis has a cool factor of 10, folks:

Using satellite images, NASA scientists recently mapped vineyards across the commonwealth to take stock of an enterprise that bedeviled Thomas Jefferson and countless fellow Virginians before finally taking root about 40 years ago.

It’s an extraterrestrial take on terroir, and winemakers and industry groups are poring over it, hoping NASA’s bird’s-eye view will give them a better feel for where Virginia winemaking is — and where it should go.

“It’s quite amazing,” said Bill Tonkins, vineyard manager at Veritas Vineyard and Winery in Afton. “The technology now can identify a vineyard from many miles above in the air.”

The technology has been around for about 15 years now, but the advances in spectral imaging take the guesswork out of the location of potential vineyards, where the costs of putting down special varieties of grapes followed by the intensive pruning and care they require (too much leaf, too much grape; too little leaf, too little grape — other aphroisms about the health of the vines and so forth all mattering) means that it can be a rather expensive mistake to drop vines in certain fields.

Add to it *ahem* climate change — and you can see the risks for vintners who will place vines down one year thinking it’s perfect, and 20 years later the yields are horrible.  Rain, temperature, solar aspect, the quality of the soil (can’t be too rich, can’t be too poor), drainage — it all plays a role.  In Virginia, where our wineries are a $750 million a year business, there’s a lot of consideration that goes into play.

If you’re really interested, read this.   Once upon a time, you used to be able to check out your own property to see if it was compatible for vintage, but that appears to have gone away for the moment.  Still, if you’re into agriculture or grow your own grapes, this is really neat stuff.

I’m sure one of our helpful readers will point us all in the right direction in the comment section!

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