“Wine grape laborers have been virtually nonexistent. People don’t want to work in vineyards anymore because it’s remote, tough work,” said Kaan Kurtural, professor of viticulture and enology and extension specialist at UC Davis. With the reduced availability of cheap labor, California winegrape growers are turning to machines for pruning, canopy management and harvesting. “There is now machinery available to do everything without touching a vineyard.”
Actually, machinery doesn’t eliminate the need for seasonal manual labor. But it sure does reduce it, he says.
About 90% of the wine grapes crushed in the U.S. are mechanically harvested. Previous studies have found about a 50% savings in labor costs from using machines to harvest instead of hand harvesting.
“Using more mechanization in a vineyard beyond just harvesting can also reduce labor costs without affecting grape quality.” Kurtural said.
Mechanical pruning, for example, can save between 60% to 80% of labor operation costs per acre compared to manual pruning alone. One experiment in the San Joaquin Valley, where more than 50% of California’s wine grapes are grown, also showed using mechanical canopy management machines to manage merlot grapes resulted in twice the amount of color. The more color, or higher anthocyanin concentrations, the better the quality. It can significantly improve returns from vineyards in California’s heartland.