167 The Best Wine in the World Receives Care and Correction Guided by Smart Maps The conditions that propelled the 2011 Dow’s Vintage Port to be named Wine Spectator’s 2014 Wine of the Year are well documented but difficult to duplicate. That’s why the phrase “it was a good year” resonates so strongly with winemakers and wine enthusiasts everywhere. According to Pedro Leal da Costa, head of viticulture at Symington Family Estates, the rain came at the right time, the temperature and humidity fluctuations were perfect, and the ripening pace was ideal. Symington Family Estates produces some of the top port wines of the world, in the Douro River Valley in Portugal, for brands that include Graham’s, Dow’s, Warre’s, Cockburn’s, Quinta do Vesuvio, and Prats + Symington. While the company can’t control the weather—especially now with more extreme conditions—it can refine its processes. “We’re always looking for the top science in agriculture to produce a better product,” Leal da Costa said. Symington’s winemakers record the changing conditions and the corresponding health of the grapes and soil by using an enterprise GIS. It allows them to track the variables for each of the family’s 27 estates. The health and ripeness of every bunch of 53 different varieties of grapes of the Grape Library project managed by the R&D team (see sidebar), along with the maturation network, get tracked in GIS. The data is used to create maps that guide field crews across each winery. GIS also helps determine timing, which Leal da Costa calls its superpower. Operating Farms and Timberlands More Efficiently
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