One of the greatest expenses of making wine is the cost of people.
Much of the work in maintaining wine grapes, is the cost of doing the work by hand. Many hands are required. For now, that is; inventors continue to tweak designs for machines that can prune as well as pick in the vineyards.
The Viticulture & Enology program at the University of California-Davis is involved in the transition, as is the UC's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Kaan Kurtural of UCD visits with George Zhuang of UCANR .