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Wineries Viñas del Vero will use great technological developments for its 2014 vintage, including drones. Multispectral and equipped with thermal cameras, these devices are able to "see" in wavelengths that the human eye cannot perceive and have thus an amazing display power that, through the aerial photographs they take, allows a close examination of every corner of the vineyard.
These tools can reproduce –into a high resolution, the size of the average smartphone screen– the actual state of the leaves of the vines. This way, experts will analyse the health status of each leaf, its water stress, its chlorophyll and anthocyanin contents, the yield potential or the inherent quality of each of the grapes making up the cluster.
This technology –used for precision viticulture– allows the Viñas del Vero staff to perform control work on the vineyard, such as individualised pruning, variable dosing of fertilisers and plant protection products, as well as a deep understanding of the potential yield and quality of the vintage, so that they can separate qualities at the time of harvesting.
In the words of José María Ayuso, Viñas del Vero's Agricultural Director, "despite the use of these technological developments, these tools will never replace the necessary monitoring and control by growers and winemakers to achieve the highest levels of product quality. Oenology and viticulture will never cease to be a craft, a speciality in which daily human intervention is absolutely necessary. "