High-tech wine estate: Dirk controls everything with his tablet
It is well known that Belgian and certainly also West Flemish wines are on the rise. But what Dirk Syx has created in ‘Den Nachtegael’ in Zonnebeke is a combination of viticulture and top technology.
“Making wine is a trade, a craft,” says Dirk Syx, who runs his company with his tablet. “I can control everything from a screen: from heating to lighting.”
Automation
In terms of energy, the company is virtually self-sufficient. But the winemaking itself, from the vineyard to the bottle, is also fully automated. Normally you need 40 people to pick 1 hectare of grapes in 1 day. A machine picks 1 hectare per hour fully automatically. (Read more below the photo.)
Den Nachtegael already has more than 12 hectares of vines in Zonnebeke and Moorslede, but Dirk is still expanding.
Last year there was 15,000 liters of production. The company is now only at 10 percent of what will eventually be produced. Dirk keeps secret how much everything cost.