Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Napa...allow me to introduce you to Sensory Transformation
Sensory Transformation is a theme that sprang from our work on the future of Science & Technology. And Fortune shares a story called "The Grapes of Math" where we learn how Silicon Valley refugees have improved wine through extensive use of sensors and measurement:
He [Chuck McMinn] runs through the high-tech gadgetry dotting Vineyard 29, his Napa Valley winery, which was completed in 2002. There are moisture probes monitoring water use and weather stations that send statistics to a Web site.
His consulting winemaker, Philippe Melka, has enlisted a French Ph.D. student to install sap-flow sensors on some vines to track how much water they use, information that could help refine irrigation techniques down the line.
The property is almost off the energy grid, producing electricity with microturbines that burn natural gas on the roof. Excess energy is then used to warm water for heating and cool it for air conditioning.
In the winery he has installed a system called Tanknet, linking thermostats on the tanks to Web-based software to regulate fermentation and aging. During the harvest, when every degree change is crucial, the winemakers can watch the tanks - virtually - through the night.
And in the lab adjacent to the winery there's a new $15,000 machine called a titrator, used to test the wines for everything from sulfur content to pH balance.
"What we're doing is making wine the old-fashioned way," says McMinn. "We just use technology to do it."
Now, how long before Math World finds Napa as well?