Sonoma County Winegrowers and Reservoir at the moment introduced the launch of Reservoir Farms, Sonoma – the world’s first on-farm robotics and automation hub for viticulture positioned within the coronary heart of California wine nation.
As a flagship collaboration beneath the Sonoma County Winegrowers’ Farm of the Future initiative and constructing on the success of Reservoir’s inaugural “Olympic Village of AgTech” website in Salinas, Reservoir is extending its mannequin to California’s Wine Nation to drive the event and deployment of automation and superior robotics for vineyards and premium everlasting crops like wine grapes. Launched by Sonoma County Winegrowers in 2022, the Farm of the Future serves as an open invitation for innovators and growers to collaborate, pilot new applied sciences, and share impactful practices to advance sustainability and local weather adaptation throughout Sonoma County’s licensed winegrowing operations.
“Sonoma County Winegrowers has lengthy had a imaginative and prescient of being the “Silicon Valley” of Ag Innovation for winegrapes and at the moment that imaginative and prescient turns into a actuality. And most enjoyable is that these start-ups can have our farmers on the desk fixing the issues they’ve versus creating options after which on the lookout for the issue,” stated Karissa Kruse, president and CEO of Sonoma County Winegrowers, on the ribbon-cutting occasion hosted at its headquarters. “Winegrapes are one of the labor-intensive specialty crops, and rising expertise has the potential to remodel how we handle vineyards, upskill our workforce, and proceed to ship for our shoppers.”
By including Reservoir Farms, Sonoma to Farm of the Future, a strong residing lab is being created the place growers, startups, and trade companions work collectively to resolve at the moment’s hardest challenges and construct resilience for the long run. Amid rising labor prices, a shrinking workforce, and mounting manufacturing bills, wine growers in Sonoma County and throughout California face complicated challenges that threaten winery resilience. Reservoir Farms, Sonoma will characteristic fabrication services, an engineering workshop, and 14 acres of managed winery take a look at blocks the place robotics startups and AgTech leaders like John Deere can work side-by-side to develop, iterate, and validate field-ready applied sciences. It will convey financial growth to Sonoma County, new jobs, new firms, and a chance to assist workforce growth and training.
Reservoir’s enlargement to Sonoma County is a part of a broad, multi-regional technique to construct a community of on-farm innovation hubs anchored by high growers, R&D companions and regional establishments. Reservoir Farms, Sonoma features as a real-world laboratory accelerating viticulture innovation, uniting a number of stakeholders and bridging the hole between engineering and agriculture.
Reservoir is inviting six startups to hitch the incubator by the tip of 2025. Cropmind, Inc. and Budbreak Improvements already dedicated to this system starting in January 2026, whereas present Reservoir Farms resident Beagle Expertise will lengthen its present Reservoir membership to Sonoma to increase its vine pruning answer into Wine Nation.
“The subsequent technology of breakthroughs in ag robotics occur if world-class engineers have direct entry to actual farm environments to develop expertise,” stated Danny Bernstein, founder and CEO of Reservoir. “The subsequent leap—whether or not it’s superior notion, precision agriculture, rugged humanoids, or foundational AI platforms—would require engineers and growers constructing and problem-solving collectively. We’re honored to be a part of Sonoma County Winegrowers’ Farm of the Future to assist drive innovation for his or her members at the moment and into the long run.”
