Precision viticulture

Precision viticulture project

Aiming to keep improving the quality of our wines, from the various climats and terroirs of Burgundy that we run, we set up these last months an ambitious project for our emblematic Monopole plotLe Clos des Langres. This 3.15 hectare plot is composed of a terroir whose soil has very variable and specific characteristics. This variability leads to different properties on the plot, concerning for example : its capacity to retain water, its temperature and its nutritional elements content. This influences the development of the vines and therefore the maturity and quality of the grapes.

This project focuses on the precise analysis of the Le Clos des Langres characteristics soil and their effects on the development of the planted vine. These analyses were carried out using Precision Viticulture (PV) tools.

What is precision viticulture?

It is a set of field methods based on information, using sensors, and complemented by observations and visual measurements, for each vine, in order to study the vine and the soil. The VP aims to optimize the environmental and technical performance of a winery. Its ambition is to improve the viticultural management of the plots and the quality of the grapes produced.

Variations in soil composition (clay, sand, limestone, pebbles, etc.) were characterized by measuring its resistivity (see soil resistivity map at Clos des Langres). The resistivity of a material corresponds to its capacity to oppose the passage of an electric current. This is the opposite of conductivity. For example, water easily allows an electric current to pass through it. A soil containing a lot of water will therefore be very conductive and not very resistive. This measurement allows us to identify areas containing a lot of water and therefore where clay would be very present. This method has allowed us to determine, within Le Clos des Langres, areas that are very favorable for the production of high quality Pinot Noir and areas that suffer from structural and long-standing problems, requiring special attention from our teams.

Variations in the development of the vines were characterized by measuring the amount of foliage on each vine. This allows us to visualize the health of the vines (see map of the quantity of foliage measured at Clos des Langres).

The identification of these soil and foliage variations allowed us to identify, in conjunction with our pre-harvest maturity measurements, areas producing different qualities of grapes(seemap of small plots with different qualities within Le Clos des Langres). This allows us to optimize the expression of their quality and to select those whose production will go into the composition of our “Le Clos des Langres” Monopole, in AOC Côte de Nuits-Villages, and those for our AOC Côte de Nuits-Villages, without mention of climat.

These PV tools were also used to assess the differences in soil and foliage quantity in Domaine d’Ardhuy AOC Grands Crus: Corton “Les Renardes”, “Le Clos du Roi”, “Hautes Mourottes” and “Les Pougets”, Corton-Charlemagne and Clos de Vougeot “Petit Maupertui”.

These tools will allow us to adapt our viticultural practices such as the planning of replanting, the choice of vine plants, fertilisation, pruning and soil work.

In the long term, we wish to generalize these tools to all of the parcels managed by Domaine d’Ardhuy.