Machines already pick about 90% of the grapes used to make wine in the U.S., but full adoption of machine use for the growing, pruning and harvesting process hasn’t yet occurred.
But the COVID-19 pandemic and a continuing labor shortage has accelerated the move toward nearly complete automation in one of America’s most valuable industries.
Kaan Kurtural, a viticulture specialist at UC Davis’ Department of Viticulture and Enology, told Newsweek the changing economic reality is making machine use increasingly appealing to winemakers.
“We started having the economic need to do a lot of the practices mechanically because there’s just not enough people to do this work,” Kurtural said.
Recent Comments