Catalogue of Infrastructures and Facilities

The 80 m² laboratory contains a spectrophotometer and a fluorometer, as well as all the equipment needed for sampling and measuring spray quality and drift parameters.

Facility

Test platform

This concrete test platform (30 m * 15 m) located on the INRAE Montpellier premises enables application techniques to be tested under controlled conditions: it features rows of artificial vines and a device for controlling wind conditions on the platform (wall of fans).

Facility

Mas Piquet

Mas Piquet is the experimental estate of the Montpellier high school (15 hectares). Located to the north of Montpellier, it is easily accessible and provides representative conditions of Southern Vineyards. The current grape varieties, covering an area of 15 hectares, are divided between Chardonnay, Marselan, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Petit Verdot, and Carignan, as well as two new disease-resistant grape varieties, Voltis and Floréal. The Maspiquet estate is used as a training support for the Agropolis Campus (high schools, CFA, CFPPA,...). Domaine Maspiquet's ambition is to develop the professional skills of learners and to enable them to actively contribute to the food and agroecological transitions. The estate has a duty to present modern viticulture and the latest innovations to the learners. To this end, it is in partnership with several research centres (INRAE, IFV, etc.). The experiments are mainly in connection with agroecology (reduction of inputs, preservation of the natural environment, etc.).

Infrastructure

UMT EcoTech

UMT EcoTech aims to develop methods for reducing the use of plant protection products and mitigating their impact, including assessing risks of bystanders exposure to aerial drift and reducing these risks through the implementation of optimised application techniques and/or adapted field management (hedges, drift protection nets). Increasing the use of biocontrol solutions at the field level by adapting application processes to their specific features and using precision technologies is also a major focus of the UMT EcoTech. Sprayed products are studied through the study of the impact of different doses and product distributions within the canopy in relation to the different modes of action of biocontrol specialities. These activities are conducted in close collaboration with the industrial sector (agro-equipment manufacturers, speciality product manufacturers). UMT EcoTech focuses on (i) the design of new crop protection methods through the development and integration of new technological systems, (ii) the assessment, through experimentation and simulation, of mature technologies or those under development, and the characterisation of their contribution to the agroecological transition, and (iii) the development of new methods for biological evaluation of crop protection processes in the field, using precision application techniques.

Facility

Vinification Cellar

Our experimental cellar allows vinification at different scales, depending on the needs of the experiment: from 1 L to a few hectolitres. Our most common volume is 50 L. It is equipped with rooms at different temperatures and even a device of connected tanks to monitor and record the fermentation parameters under different conditions. As part of the TEF project, we can receive different connected sensors to collect data. The interest, with AI, is to develop predictive quality models for winemaking.

Facility

Laboratory_IFV

Our laboratory allows us to carry out analyses on grapes, must, wine, but also on the soil, and even pathogens; It makes it possible to make the link between practices in the vineyard and qualitative indicators.

Facility

Workshop

The workshop can be used for storage, working on a prototype, or loading the robot’s batteries. It can be helpful to avoid multiple transportations of a robot, for example, when the field experimentations must last more than a day. It is equipped with electric plugs and has convenient tools for working on metal or wood.

Facility

Experimental Vineyard_IFV

Our experimental 15-hectare vineyard is planted with the main grape varieties of the Southwest. It also includes a plot of grape varieties with more than 300 varieties listed. Located in the direct vicinity of the farm buildings, the plots are representative of many different conditions in terms of soil (silt, sand, clay, pebbles) and at the topography level (flat, slope, side slope). Two main pruning methods are represented: the Guyot and the cordon. It is a great playground for robot manufacturers to test their products in representative conditions, whether it is for navigation, detection with AI for security, or assessment of their impact. It is also a great source of data to be collected at different scales with different sensors.

Infrastructure

Vinnopole Sud Ouest

The southwest centre of the IFV is located in the Gaillac vineyard. Also known as V'Innopole Sud-Ouest, it is a modern complex built in 2003, including a mini-vinification cellar (400 vintages per year), a vinification cellar with a larger capacity (vat room of 30 to 50 hl), a 130 m² laboratory, and a 15-hectare vineyard dedicated to experimentation.

This state-of-the-art equipment makes it possible to carry out specific studies to design and test innovations. Our technology halls contain all the tools for wine processing. In our workshop, we can store up to four robots. Our 15-hectare vineyard can support a great variety of experiments with robots, sensors, soil mapping, and so on. These facilities are a powerful technology transfer tool and allow the implementation of tests of new equipment or new processes intended for the progress of wine companies in the Southwest.

Labelled DigiFerme® since 2018, the V'Innopole Sud-Ouest is part of the logic of "farm labs," open and collaborative for the implementation of "digital management" of production by combining existing tools and techniques. - the development of digital tools that are directly operational on farms - testing tools and prototypes offered by external companies - the Ideas Incubator, offering digital innovation players an open, collaborative, and relevant "playground" to refine their concepts.

Our main missions are as follows:

Engineering: we develop and obtain technical references adapted to modern viticulture with a 4- to 5-year anticipation to meet the expectations of tomorrow's winegrowers.
Technology transfer centre: we work with fundamental research centres in Toulouse and abroad.
Connection to the IFV national network for each subject of study.

Facility

Technology Hall

This 200 m² hall stores all metrology elements: artificial vine benches (collection and border rows), LiDAR sensors on wheelbarrows, a weather station, and electronic devices for metrology.

Facility

Vinimag©

These fermenters are individually thermoregulated, and the temperature is measured at three heights by IR sensors. A collaborative arm transfers the fermenters to a weight and colour measuring station and to an input addition station. Weight monitoring provides access to fermentation kinetics. This measurement is carried out every hour, as well as the measurement of the colour, which follows the extraction of the film from the juice during fermentation. The second station allows the liquid addition of inputs in an automated manner.

This robot is the central experimental device of the new UMT Actia Oenotyping, which brings together the scientific and technical skills of the IFV, the Institut Agro Montpellier, the UMR SPO and the UEPR of INRAE. Unique in the world for red wines, it aims to allow "high-throughput oenotyping". Indeed, thanks to this system, researchers will study and integrate oenological criteria upstream of the creation and varietal selection, which aims to adapt plant material to climate change (adaptation to high temperatures, resistance to diseases).

The effect of drought on the wine will also be studied, as well as new winemaking routes with little or no inputs. Vinimag© is the central tool of the Minicave project, which is the result of 5 years of development by the IFV, INRAE and the Institut Agro to respect the main principles of red winemaking on a kilo scale.

A Grape Bank allows the 1 kg batches to be kept frozen and fermentation to be postponed throughout the year, thus freeing itself from the seasonality of the harvest. The robot ensures the fermentation and pressing carried out by a 9-station plant, called Nano'press.

Facility

Pech rouge experimental vineyard