This month’s developments point to a common theme - agricultural technology is moving beyond just simple data collection towards systems that can autonomously detect problems and intervene. Viticulture is proving a particularly useful test environment, with developments in robotics, sensing and precision application technology increasingly reaching commercial vineyards.

Industry updates

Autonomous UV robots target vineyard disease

Saga Robotics’ Thorvald autonomous vineyard robot is being deployed in California to control powdery mildew using UV-C light rather than conventional fungicides. Walsh Vineyard Management is testing the technology across operations covering around 4,500 acres. The platform operates through vineyard rows and exposes vines to ultraviolet light that disrupts fungal development.

The deployment is a useful example of vineyard robotics moving beyond monitoring and mapping into direct intervention, with the potential to reduce labour requirements, chemical inputs and tractor movements. One remaining constraint is regulatory. California currently requires human supervision of autonomous agricultural machinery, limiting some of the economic benefits of fully autonomous operation.

Read the full article – San Francisco Chronicle
Saga Robotics – Thorvald for vineyards

Hyperspectral imaging detects grape disease before symptoms appear

Researchers at Cornell University have developed HyperBird, an imaging platform capable of detecting grape diseases including powdery and downy mildew several days before visible symptoms develop.

The system uses hyperspectral imaging to identify subtle changes in plant characteristics associated with infection. Earlier detection could allow growers to intervene more selectively, while also helping plant breeders identify disease-resistant varieties more rapidly. In practical terms, this brings vineyards closer to a model where sensing, diagnosis and treatment can increasingly be linked together.

Read more – Cornell Chronicle

£20m UK funding competition targets agricultural robotics

The UK government, through Innovate UK and Defra, has opened a £20 million funding competition focused on agricultural robotics and automation.

Relevant technologies include autonomous systems, crop monitoring and precision agriculture. Applications close on 30 September 2026 (be quick! I may be able to help you with your application so do reach out). The competition reflects a wider shift in public funding towards deployable automation and integrated systems rather than standalone sensing technologies.

Government announcement – GOV.UK
Competition details and application – Innovate UK

England’s extreme summer brings an unusually early grape harvest

England’s record-breaking summer has accelerated grape development, with Nyetimber beginning its 2026 harvest on 14 September, its earliest harvest to date.

Higher temperatures and sunshine have accelerated ripening, although drought has reduced berry size and late spring frosts affected some vines. Nyetimber expects the harvest could ultimately produce around 1.5 million bottles of sparkling wine.

The changing growing season is likely to increase the value of vineyard sensing, irrigation optimisation, phenological modelling and predictive harvest tools as growers adapt to greater climatic variability.

Read more – ITV News

Precision spraying continues its transition towards real-time control

UK company Cordon Technologies is developing its Loop precision spraying technology, which dynamically manages agricultural treatments during application rather than relying on conventional tank mixing.

The company says its Loop and Cortex systems can reduce spraying time and chemical inputs and are already being used in vineyards. The development is notable because precision application is moving beyond controlling where chemicals are applied towards controlling application itself in much greater detail, opening the possibility of tighter integration with disease maps and crop sensing.

Cordon Precision Spraying

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Upcoming events

22–23 September: World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit, London

The World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit takes place at the InterContinental London – The O2. More than 800 participants are expected, including start-ups, investors and technology leaders, with the programme covering agricultural robotics, AI, biologicals, resource efficiency and resilient food systems.

World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit

12–16 October: 47th World Congress of Vine and Wine, Ningxia, China

The International Organisation of Vine and Wine will hold its 47th World Congress in Yinchuan. Technical sessions cover resilient and sustainable viticulture, future oenology, economic and regulatory models, and wine safety and health.

Congress information and registration – OIV

20 October: Sustainability in Drinks 2026, London

Taking place at Christ Church Spitalfields, the event will include dedicated sessions on regenerative viticulture, including the relationship between regenerative farming and wine quality. The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation will also introduce its Regenerative Buying Accelerator Pledge, supporting an ambition for 10% of the world’s vineyards to be farmed regeneratively by 2035.

Sustainability in Drinks 2026
2026 programme

26 October: WineAI Forum 2026, Conegliano, Italy

WineAI Forum will focus specifically on artificial intelligence and advanced digitalisation across the wine value chain. Topics include precision viticulture, predictive models, data management, winemaking processes, sensory analysis, consumer behaviour and the regulatory implications of AI.

WineAI Forum 2026 – CREA

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Drops of God sits in an unusual but compelling space: part family drama, part intellectual puzzle, and part love letter to wine. I’m not a TV critic, but as someone familiar with wine education and tasting frameworks, this series stood out for how confidently it leans into its subject matter without dumbing it down.

The central premise is undeniably far-fetched. A globe-spanning inheritance battle resolved through blind tasting challenges is not how estates are settled in the real world. Yet this is precisely what keeps the series gripping. The stakes are high, the rules are clear, and each episode advances the contest in a way that feels more like an engineering problem than a melodrama: constraints, trade-offs, and human fallibility under pressure.

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Where the show really succeeds is character development. What begins as a straightforward rivalry slowly reveals layered backstories, cultural tensions, and unresolved personal histories. Characters evolve as new information is revealed, and motivations that initially feel abrasive or opaque begin to make sense. This slow unpeeling is handled with restraint and rewards attention.

From a wine perspective, Drops of God is refreshingly credible. The tasting language, sensory memory, and discipline required to blind taste at a high level will feel immediately familiar to anyone who has studied for a WSET or similar qualification. The show treats tasting as a learned skill, built through repetition, calibration, and emotional recall, rather than some mystical talent.

Visually, the series is superb. The cinematography is polished and deliberate, with vineyards, cellars, and cityscapes shot in a way that reinforces wine’s association with time, place, and craftsmanship. There is a consistent sense of luxury.

Series 1 sets a high bar. If Series 2 (starts 21 January) builds on this foundation rather than escalating gimmicks, Drops of God could become a benchmark for how niche expertise can drive genuinely compelling television.

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As the viticulture industry grapples with the challenges of sustainable farming and pest management, innovative technologies are emerging to offer new solutions. One such breakthrough comes from the Vergelegen Wine Estate in South Africa, where drones are being used to deploy parasitic wasps to combat mealybug infestations and the devastating leafroll v…

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As wine lovers, we are no strangers to the diverse world of wine-making. The techniques used to create the perfect blend of flavours and aromas can be traced back thousands of years, and while wine production has evolved significantly, the fundamental process remains relatively unchanged. However, a novel concept known as precision fermentation is emerg…

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The Internet of Things, IoT, Connected Vineyard, Industry 4.0, Smart Farming, Precision Agriculture.

It’s likely that these are terms you’ve seen and heard for some time, but how do you actually implement these concepts successfully?

What we’re fundamentally talking about here with the Internet of Things (IoT) is making use of connected sensors to allow u…

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I'm sure we've all had the fantasy of leaving our day jobs behind and moving to a lush countryside to start a winemaking business. Well soon we'll be able to live out that fantasy, although virtually.

Hundred Days is a new game soon to be released by the Italy-based developers Broken Arm Games. It's is a simulator style game with a slight puzzle element, allowing players to build and scale a winemaking business from scratch.

The game consists of 4 main elements: the vines, warehouse, winery and the playing board & cards. The player is presented with certain cards in each round and must fit these on to the board in order for that card to execute. So, for example, the player is presented with 3 cards which have various sizes and shapes and represent various steps in the winemaking process. These need to be executed in the right order and at the right time. As the business grows you need to manage more of these at the same time. You start with a limited size board and can purchase more squares on the board and so allowing you to fit more cards on it at one time. It's not the easiest to explain in text so I would highly recommend playing the demo a couple of times or watching the trailer to get a feel for the gameplay.

There's a lot of features in the game and it allows you to control the winemaking process right from growing grapes to selling the wine. It's a game where there's always something to do and think about. Players can:

• Cultivate different types of vine and choose grape varieties depending on the soil characteristics

• Manage work in the vineyard such as pruning and harvesting

• Apply treatments to the vines depending on the type of disease

• Check the state of ripeness of the grapes and decide when to harvest

• Follow the winemaking processes and develop the characteristics of the wines

• Select the yeasts and bacteria used during fermentation

• Age the wines in different ways and for different lengths of time

• Customise bottles by choosing their shape, colour, cork type or screw cap

• Create a sales network and adapt the characteristics of the wine to the type of customer

• Manage marketing and social activities to increase the reputation of the company.

The game is built on Unity which gives it great looking graphics and good performance. It also makes the game really easy for the developers to port on to a broad range of platforms such as Xbox and Playstation in the future. It will be released on 13th May, initially on PC and Mac via Steam, and on Google Stadia, with consoles coming later.

Having just played the demo I think this is a really fun and interesting game. It does teach you about the wine making process but the education feels secondary which is nice, otherwise it might feel like being back in school. It allows you to play around and add your own touch with every decision you make having a genuine impact. It provides a good mix between the simulation and puzzle genres with it definitely be more of a simulator than a puzzle game which I think is spot on.

I'm looking forward to the release and will no doubt be spending my weekends and evenings building my virtual wine empire.

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One of those that has stood out for me has been The Wine List. A few things drew me to them, not just their excellent marketing, modern look and feel, and flexible subscription options but more so their unique offering in that they provide subscribers with a 12-part wine course. In addition to learning about the wines in your box that month you also get to learn about how to taste, the fermentation process, how terroir and weather impact wines, and a whole range of other topics. The aim being that at the end of 12 months you're more confident in your wine knowledge, without having to spend time going through formal courses like the WSET.

The Wine List has had a great 2020 with now over 1,300 active subscribers up from just 100 about a year ago at the end of 2019. They've grown Monthly Recurring Revenues (MRR) to an average of £45k over the last six months with £71k in November and have shipped over 20,000 bottles of wine.

On the back of that success and growth the founder, Josh Lachkovic and his team, chose to raise growth funds through the crowdfunding platform Crowdcube. With a target of £375,000 in order to build and grow a new online learning platform with videos, quizzes and a community, shoring up their back-office operations and customer service, and getting their own warehouse and fulfillment centre set up. All helping to increase margins and give greater opportunity for growth.

They have now smashed that target and successfully been funded at over £505,000 from 442 investors. Around £320,000 of that came from their lead investor, Haatch, who are an Angel Investor with some successful technology start-ups in their portfolio.

The Wine List has shown the industry what can be done with a good digital strategy and a bit of investment in effort and cash.

If you want to try out The Wine List use this link and the code TEACHME30 at checkout to get 30% off your first box.

While some links may be affiliate all content is 100% independent.

The Copper Crew was set up earlier in 2020 (what a year to start a new business) by three friends Oli, Theo and Sam. Oli and Theo have ginger hair, hence the name Copper Crew.

They currently offer three wines, all made by Sam in South Africa (Sam also runs the brilliant Minimalist Wines). First up is a Rosé which would go down a treat at a summer picnic, it's very reminiscent of a Provence Rosé. Next is a wonderfully crisp Chenin Blanc, perfect for a relaxing afternoon in the sunshine, it's zesty and very easy to drink. Finally there's a fruity Merlot which is their newest wine. It's great to drink on a cold Autumn evening, although I wish I had poured it in to a glass to give it some air before drinking.

Both the Rosé and Chenin recently won Bronze at the Drinks Business Blind Tasting.

All of their wines are Vegan friendly and certified sustainable which of course matches with the dietary and ethics considerations of a lot of younger drinkers that these wines are mostly aimed at.

I love the packaging, it's vibrant and fun. It will certainly help them stand out on a supermarket and wine shop shelves.

At £12.50 for a box of 3 which is equivalent to a 750ml bottle they're not the cheapest. For a lot of consumers spending £12.50 on a bottle of wine would probably be seen as a weekend treat rather than an ad-hoc purchase for a picnic in the park. With £12.50 you could get a 12 pack of Brewdog IPA beer. Now I know that's not quite comparing Apples with Apples (or Grapes with Grapes) but consumers looking for a few drinks in the park of a summers evening will be making this comparison.

That said, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend The Copper Crew wines to anyone, whether a wine connoisseur or an average consumer. With three great South African wines in modern and vibrant packaging I think Oli, Theo and Sam are on to a winner.

Across nearly every measure still wine sales in the UK have been declining or at least stagnant with volum…

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Keeping track of the wines in your cellar is no mean feat, even if you have just a few dozen bottles. Remembering each wine, where it was bought, for what reasons, at what price, and of course where you’ve put it are all easy things to forget and get wrong. Accidentally opening that nice bottle of Pauillac that you originally bought to keep for example.

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67 Pall Mall

Regarded as one of the worlds finest members club and with over 4,000 wines on their list they certainly have the choice. With London’s best Sommeliers in their employ they also have the expertise.

They haven’t let this prestige go to waste in lockdown either with a huge range of virtual wine tastings and other masterclasses available. It’s almost certain that you’ll find something interesting and perhaps even a bit different.

The venue is currently host at least two events every day of the week with some days even hosting five events. They have tasting of specific wineries, regions and introductions to whole countries such as China.

Tastings range in price depending on the wine being tasted but range generally from £70 to £130 although some do hit £200. Wines are sent to your home in small tasting bottles.

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Ward’s Wine Club

Started by a good friend of mine when he became furloughed Ward’s Wine Club offers a great range of regular wine tastings. All of the wines are hand picked by Ben himself with a focus on biodynamic and organic wines. They’re all very unique. You certainly won’t find any supermarket wine with in these tastings.

They offer a couple of great introductory sessions each of which features three unique wines. One has a Red, White and Rose while the other is all about Sparkling Wines with a Champagne, Prosecco, and a sparkling Chardonnay. These sessions are £59 and £64 respectively including UK delivery.

The highlight event with Ward’s Wine Club though is a 6 bottle tasting. You get a case of six unique and interesting wines delivered to your door. Five are for the tutored tasting while one, a sparkling, is to pop open at your will. This package is a very reasonable £129.

Tastings take place twice per week on a Wednesday and Saturday so you just join the relevant one for the wine you wish you to taste at that time.

The other great thing is that the tastings are recorded so you can watch back to get a quick refresher at anytime.

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Grape to Grain

A fantastic wine bar, shop and beer cellar in Manchester. Grape to Grain have now taken their regular tastings online.

Hosted on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and 6pm respectively they each have three wines and a selection of cheeses. All of Grape to Grains are quite unique and interesting, again, no supermarket stuff here.

The brilliant feature with these tastings is that they offer a range of sample sizes: a 100ml taster, 500ml carafe, or the full 750ml bottle. Prices are of course dependent on the wines being tasted and the size you go for but they can be as cheap as £15. You do also get some paired cheeses.

Wines can be delivered anywhere in the UK for a small fee but they will deliver for free in Manchester.

Grape to Grain’s tasting are a bit more relaxed than others, particularly 67 Pall Mall, expect a bit of swearing but a lot of fun too.

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