When husband-and-wife team Paul Sloan and Catherine McGrath-Sloan decided to start their own viticulture business in 1998, their vision was based on the philosophy that small grape vines, planted densely, would produce higher quality, tastier wines.
The Little Grape philosophy was so important to Sloan's mission that the couple would enter into the company name concept – Little Grape Viticulture.
"Less clusters of vines produce ripe grapes with flavor intensity," explains Paul Sloan. "All our fruit vineyards are destined for luxury grapes, and most of these sites are commanding 100x the bottle price per ton. It's all about the fruit and the little grapes that do actually make better wines."
Today, small grape farms own vineyards, most of which lie Russian and Sonoma appellations in California's Sonoma County, and also provide a variety of vineyard management and development services to landowners in Sonoma Ma County. These services include site assessment, preparation, planting and breeding.
To yield the highest quality fruit, Little Grapes relies on a wide range of tools and techniques in their operations, including automated weather tracking equipment. "Having local weather tracking devices on our farm really helps us make better decisions, from initial site evaluation to harvest," Sloan said. “This is especially important in cases where a client is interested in a vineyard site located in a field for the climate in which grapes are grown.” Little Grape uses a combination HOBO® data logger and weather station H21-002 to track soil temperature from start to temperature S-TMB-M002, S-TMB-M006, S-TMB-M017, soil moisture S-SMC-M005, S-SMD-M005, rainfall S-RGA-M002, S-RGB-M002, S-RGC-M002 , S-RGD-M002, wind speed S-WSB-M003, wind direction S-WDA-M003, S-WSET-B, S-WCA-M003, S-WCF-M003, atmospheric pressure S-BPB-CM50, S-BPA -CM10, air temperature and relative humidity S-THB-M002, S-THB-M008, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) S-LIA-M003, total solar radiation S-LIB-M003, leaf humidity S-LWA-M003, etc.
"As with temperature, we're primarily interested in the degree to which total frost occurs in spring and fall, so we can understand if frost protection is needed before developing a site," Sloan said. "Because the data logger is so portable, we can go up the hill at different temperature points and find out where the freeze line ends." Sloan also said that the small grapes were concentrated on a very old European style agricultural tractor based on a 4-foot row, and He likes to plant certain varieties in the coldest regions probably in order to prolong ripening of the fruit. "We're really getting into colder regions, so having good temperature data goes without saying."
Wind speed and direction data also helps Little Grape in a number of ways. "Whenever we overcome 15-knot winds, we completely lose photosynthesis no matter how much sun is shining," Sloan said. If the weather station tells us we're at 15 on a frequent basis, based on that data, I can plant a decision and probably decide to put the windshield on. The wind direction information helps me because we try to plant rows perpendicular to the wind direction. The first three rows of vines will need the brunt of the wind, but the remaining blocks will be protected. "The standalone data logger and 4-channel H21-002 runs on user-replaceable, household batteries, so there is no need for expensive solar panels or large battery packs.
The device also interfaces with a personal computer where weather data can be viewed and analyzed using the appropriate software program. Before using HOBO equipment, Sloan relied on daily weather data from the local fire department. He also sets out the thermometers every day, and then compares the data with the data from the fire station. "While we can get enough weather data using this method, it's pretty old compared to going to a website and plugging the logger right into your laptop." He also mentioned that data loggers and weather stations provide a More cost-effective solutions are weather monitoring network terminals in more expensive weather, and the compact design of the devices makes them more suitable for tracking temperature changes in the vineyard's canopy in the fruit area.
Once weather data has been collected for a given period of time, the data logger is offloaded to a laptop. Using the starting drawing and analysis software, with a few clicks of the mouse button, the recorded data is converted into various time-stamped weather parameters in graphical charts Temperature S-TMB-M002, S-TMB-M006, S-TMB-M017, Soil Moisture S-SMC-M005, S-SMD-M005, Rainfall S-RGA-M002, S-RGB-M002, S-RGC-M002, S-RGD-M002, Wind Speed S-WSB-M003, Wind Direction S-WDA- M003, S-WSET-B, S-WCA-M003, S-WCF-M003, atmospheric pressure S-BPB-CM50, S-BPA-CM10, air temperature and relative humidity S-THB-M002, S-THB-M008, Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) S-LIA-M003, Solar Radiation S-LIB-M003, Leaf Wetness S-LWA-M003, etc. can be compared and correlated. Sloan stores all the data on disk and eventually plans to perform more detailed data analysis. "One of the winters I'm going to correlate the data from all of our farms in one spreadsheet and each one goes from cold to hot rates. That way, when I'm selling fruit to wineries, and they're looking for specific blends, I'll be able to match the temperature and soil type For flavor, and to build flavor, from every field."
Using HOBO equipment since the company's "Inception" in 1998, Sloan believes that the company will not only be able to produce huge fruit, but also maintain a competitive advantage in the market. “Before I can understand a plot of land to put grapes in the ground, I can do a much better job of getting things right the first time. There is a lot of thought involved in the process we put into planting a vineyard and being able to automatically track weather and frost Something like that on our site has helped us make better decisions from the start."
