BORDEAUX — In the vineyards of Bordeaux, 28 Bakus electric straddle robots were already in action by the end of October, and a total of 35 will soon be in operation–according to their manufacturer, Vitibot. Virtually all of them are in classified Médoc, Saint-Emilion or Pessac-Léognan vineyards — with exception of the first of this quadron of droids, which was delivered in 2020 to a “unclassified’ vineyard.
The Bordeaux region is the first customer of Vitibot, which is based in Reims, in the Champagne region.
“This can be explained by the rapid pace of conversion to organic farms,” says Rodolphe Gérard, sales manager for Western France. The Bakus are first and foremost mechanical weeding machines that make it possible to cut chemicals without returning to the Stone Age of manual farming.
These light, electric machines (230,000 euros each) work semi-autonomously under the watchful eye of a safety supervisor, and don’t need anyone to turn them around at the end of a row, thanks to the GPS geolocation of each vine stake. They know how to scrape, claw, weed, hilling up, plow the ridges — under and in between if necessary.
Bakus’ competitor Ted, from Naïo in Toulouse, is less present in the Bordeaux region. But that could change thanks to the gold medal it won at the Vinitech for it “increased autonomy” system, which allows it to remain autonomous in vineyards.
Weed-whacker robot as lawnmower
At Château Beauregard in Pomerol, Vincent Priou adopted Bakus early on “to reduce CO2 emissions and solve labor shortages,” Impressed by the machine’s precision, “which never pulls out a plant — one bottle less each time,” he can’t wait to test the new tools promised by Vitibot, which transform the weeding robot into a mower, trimmer and pruner.
The estates are speeding up: already two Bakus at Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, and two more at Château Camensac, where owner Jean Merlaut holds the record with four robots for all his properties.
That’s the way we are: innovative and rural.
“We’re delighted that the lottery awarded the hundredth to Château Haut-Bailly,” sales manager Gérard says. Back in 2017, the estate’s president, Véronique Sanders, predicted the turning point of robotization in viticulture when she was inducted to the International Wine Academy.
At Château Palmer, a Bakus will be tested next year — alongside a horse — on a 10-hectare agroforestry plot. “We’ll see who works best!” says the estate’s technical manager, Sabrina Pernet. “That’s the way we are: innovative and rural, Cartesian and biodynamic.”
For Pernet, the spraying of biodynamic herbal teas by drone sums up the balancing act of Cantenac’s third grand cru classé.
Vitibot robot demonstrates functions in German vineyard, Jan. 10, 2023.
vitibot_officiel/Instagram
Drones and sensors
Drones, indeed: Chouette, a pioneer in vineyard health monitoring, has stopped flying over the plots of land and is now attaching its image sensors directly to vehicles of all generations, including robot, caterpillar and straddle tractors.
“It doesn’t require any additional training or tasks for data collection. And the proximity of the camera means we can be much more precise in analyzing plant vigor and detecting the appearance of mildew and wood diseases,” explains sales manager Vincent Attard.
The information gathered by the tractors and fed into the algorithms produces maps modulating the right amount of treatment or fertilizing products, zone by zone: a service much appreciated by Château Fourcas-Hosten and “several dozen” of Bordeaux’s top estates.
With technology, the vines become more and more alive.
Another local start-up, which employs a team of experts in statistics, bioinformatics, mathematics and nanotechnology, is beginning to interest them. Vegetal Signals’ innovations are based on the measurement and interpretation of the plants’ electrical activities — like an electroencephalogram. The world’s first application of this kind, it has been tested by Château Montrose and the Bernard Magrez House.
Château La Conseillante is one of the first to rely on “electrophysiology” to detect mildew infection or water stress. The paradox of innovation is that with technology, the vines become more and more alive.
