A modern solution to an ancient industry

Introducing “Plant Stress Index”, SupPlant’s present-day replacement to the historical “pressure chamber” method in the wine grape industry

Wine quality is determined in the vineyard, and grape chemistry at harvest will affect the final flavors, aroma, color, and other quality attributes of wine long after harvest. No matter if you aim for superior quality or large quantity winemaking, you need to get your grapes to a certain balance at harvest. That way, the winery can reach the quality level your target market expects.

Since grapes didn’t develop in nature to create wine, growers must manipulate them to reach desired berry quality. The common practice for that is growth control, careful application of irrigation, and initiation of water stress during berry ripening. these practices are being used as an important tool in achieving the desired attributes at harvest for many years.

But water stress is tricky. Apply the correct stress amount and you will get a good balance of sugars, acids, phenolics, and other aroma compounds. Apply too much and you stop sugar creation, lower the yield, and reach imbalanced berry attributes that may lead to lower-quality wine. Grapes and people have a lot of similarities: the correct amount of stress pushes us to achieve more, too much stress and we fall behind.

Grapes and people have a lot of similarities: the correct amount of stress pushes us to achieve more, too much stress and we fall behind

It’s complicated

To make things more complicated, wine grapes come in many cultivars and varieties, and are grown around the world in different conditions. Even if you reach a practice that works for you, what worked one year may not work next year. Especially these days, under extreme climatic changes.

The “pressure chamber” is a common tool that is used to create a method that can be applied and repeated regardless of location and conditions. By measuring the force needed to extract water from a leaf, the tool gives growers a measurement of the water stress level of their vines. Over the years, a lot of knowledge has been gathered on what is the correct level of stress best suited for different varieties in different stages. This helps growers increase their chances of reaching their desired quality goals by staying on a pre-planned path or “stress curve”.

But this tool comes with a cost. First off, the device itself is expensive. Secondly, its operation is time-consuming and somewhat complicated, resulting in a high price per data point. As a result, even farmers that use this tool, do it only once every 1–2 weeks, and only during a small part of the season. Thus, they can’t really use it to make better day-to-day. But changes in the vine happen daily, and a vine can quickly slide off the desired path to quality.

We made it simple

SupPlant has been working with wine grape growers for years, and accumulated a huge database of wine grape development characteristics in relation to irrigation application and climatic conditions, in various varieties and locations around the world.

For the past four years, together with top wine grape researchers and growers, SupPlant developed a “Plant Stress Index”. That is a unique, first-of-its-kind AI-based model that uses SupPlant’s field data, collected every 30 minutes, and predicts the result that a “pressure chamber” would show. It does that with 90% accuracy, and without the need to go out to the field even once. This makes the price of every valuable data point negligible.

“Plant Stress Index” opens new possibilities for wine grape growers as they can get real-time daily measurements of the vine’s stress levels, in a “language” they already know. Farmers can not only see the curve of the “Plant Stress Index” along the season, but they can also see it daily, in relation to irrigation plant development and climate. This way, they can react as soon as it moves away from the desired path to success in real-time.

SupPlant’s “Plant Stress Index” opens new possibilities for creating better wines while maintaining a better balance of quality and quantity.

SupPlant’s “Plant Stress Index” can also help growers and winemakers create unique recipes for certain varieties in certain areas, that can be repeated year after year. This can help growers ensure stable quality production which is one of the challenges in the industry.

Nitzan Shatzkin, agronomist