Good decisions start with good information.
‘Knowledge is power’ may be the familiar phrase, but in today’s vineyards knowledge increasingly comes from data. Good quality data gives growers a clearer picture of their vineyard’s performance. At the heart of that process sits scouting – the process of gathering visual and field-based data from the vineyard to build an accurate picture of vineyard performance over time.
Why scouting matters
Scouting is often talked about as something everyone knows they should do, yet in practice it can slip down the priority list. In the UK, it is still common for scouting to happen from the tractor cab, or as an informal add-on during an agronomist’s visit. While experience and instinct are important, neither replaces structured observation. Scouting is, at its core, a visual exercise: you can only respond to what you can see. That makes how, when and where you look critically important.
Traditionally, scouting involved a notebook and pen, recording growth stages such as budburst, flowering and veraison, alongside visible pest and disease pressure. That foundation still matters. However, thanks to technology, the way we capture and use information is changing, offering growers the chance to move from isolated observations to a long-term dataset that supports better decision-making.
Representative data
Effective scouting means assessing more than just a handful of vines. Because no one can inspect every vine, scouts rely on sampling patterns to gain a representative picture. These may include W or M-shaped walks across a block, stratified sampling at set intervals, repeated checks on sentinel vines, or randomised sampling. Each approach has advantages and limitations. Sentinel vines can work well in uniform vineyards for tracking growth and yield but are less reliable for disease monitoring. In practice, a sufficiently large, randomised sample often provides the most balanced overview.
Most scouting takes place during the growing season, with essential visits timed around key growth stages and weather events. Frost, prolonged rain or warm, humid conditions all raise the risk of disease. A good vineyard manager understands these triggers and uses them to plan scouting, looking for early signs of powdery mildew, downy mildew or botrytis before problems escalate.
Technology vs walking the vines
The tools used by scouts have evolved. Clicker counters, hand lenses and sample bags are now often supported by digital tools. Remote sensing is frequently described as the next generation of vineyard scouting. Techniques such as infrared imagery and NDVI can map vine vigour, highlight variability and identify missing vines, and are well established tools in large wine regions.
While remote sensing excels at showing vigour patterns, it struggles to identify early-stage pests, trunk diseases or subtle canopy issues at a microclimate level. For UK viticulture, with its small, dispersed and highly variable sites, these tools can be expensive and, on their own, insufficient.
That reality brings us back to a familiar conclusion: there is still no substitute for “boots on the ground”. Intimate knowledge of a vineyard’s layout, its low-airflow corners, vigorous patches and historic disease hotspots are invaluable. Walking the vines allows scouts to spot issues long before technology alone would raise a flag.
Observation into insight
Where technology really comes into its own is in supporting and organising what we see. Digital record keeping is rapidly becoming the norm. Apps and platforms can log scouting observations with photos and GPS locations, track spray programmes, record yield estimates and build year-on-year comparisons. UK-focused tools are now emerging that better reflect the realities of our vineyards.
The benefit of this digital shift is not complexity, but clarity. Over time, consistent data collection allows growers to compare seasons, refine spray timing and make better-informed decisions. The longer you gather data, the more valuable it becomes.
Scouting does not need to be complicated, but it does need to be deliberate. Done well, it turns observation into insight and experience into evidence.
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