Water-saving technology tested in vineyards
By Mike Treleven, Napa Register
Robert Mondavi Winery is field testing a new, simple technology that allows young grapevines to thrive by getting needed water from the atmosphere and not from an underground aquifer.
The invention, the Groasis Waterboxx, can potentially save grapegrowers 175,000 gallons per year per acre, said inventor Pieter Hoff, 57, who lives in the Netherlands.
“You are seeing a historic launch today,” said Bart van Bolhuis, consulate general of the Netherlands, who attended Tuesday’s unveiling at Mondavi. “The Waterboxx is low-tech and high-tech at the same time.”
Because it saves water and promotes reforestation, his invention is “great in fighting against climate change,” Hoff said.