The Cooperative Wine Institute (ICV) monitors vineyards with the support of satellite imagery

The company

Groupe ICV (Institut Coopératif du Vin) is a French cooperative company created in 1946, based in Montpellier. It ensures the analytical control for over 1 200 enterprises in the Mediterranean basin and the Rhône Valley, producing over 800 000 grape, must and wine analysis every year for them. It also provides technical consultancy to 250 wine cooperatives and 1 500 private estates and carries out applied research to provide solutions to winegrowers’ problems in specific fields.

 The challenge

The profitability of vineyard plots differs depending on the quality of the grapes, the soil, and the history and the record of illnesses affecting plants, among others. Therefore, different sections of the plots require different interventions from winegrowers. However, field visits aiming to flag up sections for specific interventions are time consuming, and winegrowers are usually obliged to contract external personnel to do this assessment on big surfaces, which increases costs.

 The satellite solution

Groupe ICV and ASTRIUM developed Oenoview®, a system that provides a reliable and cost-effective assessment of the vineyards and enables producers to adapt treatments, fertilisers and irrigation according to the actual needs of the land and vineyards.

The system relies on aerial and satellite imagery to produce a detailed cartography allowing the identification of plot sections according to the vegetation coverage, quality, the soil types, the level of maturation of grapes and their weight.

With a cost varying from € 50-80 per hectare, the maps are ready-to-use for winegrowers, without the need of field visits.

 The result

While field visits would require three to four weeks to assess the characteristics of 1 000 plots of vineyards of a cooperative, Oenoview® achieves the same result in barely eight seconds. Winegrowers can save money and time and maximise the productivity of vineyards, while also avoiding waste of fertilisers and water. Since 2009, Groupe ICV in cooperation with Astrium Services mapped over 15 000 hectares of vineyards throughout France, but also in Morocco and Greece.

“The system allows winegrowers to increase the added value of wines with a better selection of grapes at harvest. It also allows for a better use of fertilizers and increases the efficiency of technical surveys.” Jacques Rousseau, Groupe ICV.