SiteVisit Pellenc USA
On December 9, 2010, we visited Pellenc America, Inc. at 3171 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa. Our gracious host was Lance Vande Hoef, Sales Representative. Pellenc is a leading manufacturer of vineyard and winery equipment. Owner and founder Roger Pellenc started in France in 1973 with sickle bar trimmers for grape growers and launched his first harvesting machines in 1992. Today the company produces a wide range of viticulture machinery and equipment, including harvesting machines, sprayers, spreaders, pre-pruning machines, mechanical weeders, leaf removers, tying machines and electric trimmers and pruning shears. All of their main vineyard and winery equipment is manufactured in France and their hand tools are made in China. The Guerneville Road site is their hub for North America equipment sales, and their parent (head) office is located in Pertuis, France.
Lance began with a brief overview of his job function and history of the company, followed by an audio visual presentation of the different types of harvesting machines, interchangeable modules and optional equipment, and the exciting new technology in winery equipment. The different types of mechanical harvesting machines we saw included towed, traditional, and selective process, self-contained, over-the-row, multi-row and multi function. Lance also explained the various “attachments” or interchangeable modules that are available, which included the “sunflower” which does under-vine tilling; a multi-row weed sprayer; leaf puller; and pre-pruner. All of their products are amazing, and it’s easy to understand why they are so expensive; Lance indicated that an average cost for an over-the-row tractor with a picking head and sprayer attachment was $450-500,000. Most interesting for me was the presentation of Pellenc’s latest innovations in winery equipment – their Selectiv’Process Winery linear separator which separates and eliminates leaf and grape stalks (their replacement of the traditional destemmer), and Selectiv’ Process Vision sorter which selects grapes based on the winemaker’s objectives; they call it a “customized sorting process by artificial intelligence.” The incredible optical sorter can sort 2,000 grapes per second!
The trellis system that best complements their mechanical harvesters is VSP, and they build machines that can fit into rows as narrow as 4-1/2 feet; even though their harvesters weigh 17,000 pounds, vine root compaction is not an issue because the design of the machines places wheels in the row center, not over the roots; their machines are “hillside capable,” with an anti-tipping feature and the ability to accommodate as much as a 30% slope without slipping. I was also impressed with the demonstration of their electric pruning shears, which are not only labor-saving but also “healthy” in that they eliminate hand strain and workers’ comp issues. My only disappointment was the $1,855 price tag!
Lance was a great representative for Pellenc. He was very patient with questions and I felt that he gave us an extraordinary amount of his time to host our group. The message I took away from our visit is that “big changes are coming in the way fruit is managed from the vineyard to the winery” and Pellenc is going to lead the way with their experience, their ideas and the advanced technology they are capable of.
On December 9, 2010, we visited Pellenc America, Inc. at 3171 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa. Our gracious host was Lance Vande Hoef, Sales Representative. Pellenc is a leading manufacturer of vineyard and winery equipment. Owner and founder Roger Pellenc started in France in 1973 with sickle bar trimmers for grape growers and launched his first harvesting machines in 1992. Today the company produces a wide range of viticulture machinery and equipment, including harvesting machines, sprayers, spreaders, pre-pruning machines, mechanical weeders, leaf removers, tying machines and electric trimmers and pruning shears. All of their main vineyard and winery equipment is manufactured in France and their hand tools are made in China. The Guerneville Road site is their hub for North America equipment sales, and their parent (head) office is located in Pertuis, France.
Lance began with a brief overview of his job function and history of the company, followed by an audio visual presentation of the different types of harvesting machines, interchangeable modules and optional equipment, and the exciting new technology in winery equipment. The different types of mechanical harvesting machines we saw included towed, traditional, and selective process, self-contained, over-the-row, multi-row and multi function. Lance also explained the various “attachments” or interchangeable modules that are available, which included the “sunflower” which does under-vine tilling; a multi-row weed sprayer; leaf puller; and pre-pruner. All of their products are amazing, and it’s easy to understand why they are so expensive; Lance indicated that an average cost for an over-the-row tractor with a picking head and sprayer attachment was $450-500,000. Most interesting for me was the presentation of Pellenc’s latest innovations in winery equipment – their Selectiv’Process Winery linear separator which separates and eliminates leaf and grape stalks (their replacement of the traditional destemmer), and Selectiv’ Process Vision sorter which selects grapes based on the winemaker’s objectives; they call it a “customized sorting process by artificial intelligence.” The incredible optical sorter can sort 2,000 grapes per second!
The trellis system that best complements their mechanical harvesters is VSP, and they build machines that can fit into rows as narrow as 4-1/2 feet; even though their harvesters weigh 17,000 pounds, vine root compaction is not an issue because the design of the machines places wheels in the row center, not over the roots; their machines are “hillside capable,” with an anti-tipping feature and the ability to accommodate as much as a 30% slope without slipping. I was also impressed with the demonstration of their electric pruning shears, which are not only labor-saving but also “healthy” in that they eliminate hand strain and workers’ comp issues. My only disappointment was the $1,855 price tag!
Lance was a great representative for Pellenc. He was very patient with questions and I felt that he gave us an extraordinary amount of his time to host our group. The message I took away from our visit is that “big changes are coming in the way fruit is managed from the vineyard to the winery” and Pellenc is going to lead the way with their experience, their ideas and the advanced technology they are capable of.
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