TERROIR FROM SPACE

Viticulture in the face of global warming

In space… veritas! This is the bet made by the Italian start-up TERROIR FROM SPACE which offers a solution based on artificial intelligence to help winemakers face global warming. On a terroir, soil and climate are factors that determine the local conditions of growth of a vineyard and the sensory properties of a wine. In order to guarantee the quality of the final product, it is increasingly important to have reliable data to analyse the evolution of the vines. It is with the idea of exploiting those provided by space technology, constituting a gold mine for professionals in viticulture, that this Italian start-up launched in Casazza, in the heart of the vineyards of Lombardy.

Founded by Alessandro Saetta, Italian aerospace engineer, this young company, combining art of wine culture and cutting-edge technology, brings together two other oenology enthusiasts: Manuel Torres, Portuguese expert in business strategy and the Franco-German Paul Kimon Weissenberg, certified sommelier (DipWSET). Together, they propose to detect unexploited planting sites likely to host new vineyards. Using Earth observation data from satellite constellations, they identify and classify new planting sites with long-term resilience to climate change. They also provide a monitoring service for the condition of existing vineyards, assessing the risks of exploitation of sites and providing advice on best agronomic practices to be implemented.