Automated Winery

In a previous wine post we have seen how vineyard operations could be almost totally automated so that there is very little intervention needed to get the grapes to the winery. The completely automated vineyard is probably 10 to 20 years off. However, a completely automated winery is a nearer proposition.

The grapes will be transported to the winery in robotic trucks and hoppers. The robots in the vineyard will have only picked grapes which are perfectly ripe.

The basic process for making red wine can be easily automated and the general procedure is described thus.

The grapes will be loaded into crusher and de-stemming machines which will provide crushed grapes ready for pressing to produce grape juice ready for fermentation, but without the stalks and stems to add  extra  and bitter tannin to the mash.These types of machine have been around for a long time and they use  adjustable rollers and beaters to crush and remove the stems. A robot could easily control this process without manual intervention.

The crushed grapes are  poured into stainless steel tanks for fermentation under temperature controlled conditions. The winemaker can use natural yeasts to ferment the wines others will use standardised cultured yeast to control the fermentation. Pumping over techniques ensure that the wine must maintains the desired contact with the grape skins to produce the desired colour and tannin content of the wine. In former times workers would have climbed into a wooden vat or fermentation tank  to ensure that the skins and grape were well stirred during fermentation. Traditional techniques will be made obsolete by automation.


Some red wines use carbonic maceration techniques where the grapes are very lightly crushed so that the skins are broken up by the actual process of fermentation rather that crushing; this produces lighter wines ready for drinking young.

After fermentation the red wine pomace may be pressed to extract colours and tannins which can be added to the final red wine blend.

With modern techniques it will be no problem to analyse the wine for alcohol, sugar, tannin, acid and  pigment content:the fermentation could then be adjusted automatically to obtain the desired result. There will be no need for human intervention. The tasters art can be dispensed with.

Most red wines are subjected to malo-lactic conversion where tart malic acid is converted to softer lactic acid. Malo-lactic conversion can be induced by  naturally occurring bacteria but, of course, modern techniques involve the use of cultured bacteria grown for the specific purpose.

After fermentation and malo-lactic conversion the wine is matured in oak barrels for high quality wines . The oak barrels add vanilla and tannin to the newly produced wine to add character. Some standardised and industrially produce wines have vanilla flavour added in the form of oak chips to reduce the  the maturation times.

After maturation the red wine is often racked by pouring the wine into new clean barrels to gently aerate the wine and to allow a sediment to fall from the wine.

Most wine is fined using egg white or special clay to remove solids and allow them to fall to the bottom of the vat.

Some wine is filtered to ensure that all solids are removed  to improve its the clarity and appearance to the eye. Some high quality wine producers eschew this and this is why wine which has been left to mature in the bottle will throw a light sediment.

After fining and filtration the wine is bottled with hydrogen sulphide to prevent oxygen damaging the wine.

There is no reason why the whole process cannot be automated completely. The wines could be crated up and shipped to a wine merchant to anywhere in the world using drone ships and lorries.

White wines can be processed in a similar way and even Champagne operations which use a second fermentation in the bottle can be completely automated.

High quality wines will only ever be produced with humans being part of the tasting and adjustment process in the actual vineyards and winery and you will still have to mature them in a cellar before drinking. High quality wine will become more and more expensive so enjoy your Montrachet and Bourgogne Rouge Grand Cru now.


Soon, you will be able to enjoy a TV meal of steak and chips with a bottle of Shiraz flown to your doorstep by a drone. The wine will only get near a human being when you open it. The chips will also be automatically produced. The beef cattle will never have been patted on the backside by a farmer.  Very few people will ever experience the exquisite taste of a high quality wine which has a delicious and unique taste of its own. Most wine will become industrialised and homogenised plonk, which will be used to wash down homogenised food delivered to your door by a drone with  a programmed grin on its face. Welcome to the future of wine.

The Winebot

New technology will soon be available to wine producers. Robots are being developed which will be able completely to maintain the vineyard. There will be robots which can drive between the vines to clear away weeds. Robots will be able to recognise diseased leaves and remove or treat them with insecticides and fungicides.

Spur and cane training and pruning will be controlled by our automated friends. The wood and wire supports for the vines will also be maintained automatically.

Automated analysis of the soil will allow robots to treat the ground with fertilisers and control the acidity and mineral balance of the growing substrate.

Automated cloches will protect the vines in the winter and will ensure that the vines are supplied with the exact quantity of UV light either from the sun or lamps.

Automated irrigation will ensure that the vines are supplied with the exact quantity of water required for optimal and scheduled growth.

Robots will be able to detect which grapes are ripe and ready for picking.

Machines will harvest the grapes and transport them automatically to the winery.

Robots will be used to deter insect and animal pests and will patrol the vineyard to ensure that humans cannot damage the growth too.

There will hardly be a requirement either for traditional farmers or vineyard workers. Everything will be managed by a technician at a computer console or using a 'phone app. The "farmer" could operate from anywhere.

You may think that this is impossible but very soon automated machines will be deployed by farmers to harvest their wheat and grain crops. These machines will be controlled by computers using artificial intelligence. Their fields will be mapped by GPS systems which will control movements down to the centimetre. Hopper lorries to transport the grain to barns will also be controlled by computer. Seeding operations can be controlled likewise. The machines will drive themselves automatically from garage to field. Our farmer cousins in France have confirmed that farming co-operatives will be operating like this in the near future. What can happen in a grain field can also happen in a vineyard but of course growing vines is more complicated.

Within twenty years it will be possible to completely automate vineyard operations. Most vineyard workers will become unemployed. There will then be a shortage of workers experienced enough to do work for the few traditional growers and the price of their labour will go up. Also, many traditional operators will be put out of business by the automated operators. The number of growers producing individually managed crops to produce individually tasting wines will be reduced. Top quality wines will get more and more expensive.

We are heading for a wine world of complete standardisation and homogenisation. Enjoy a good Bordeaux or Burgundy while you can. There is more to follow.