The term 'Precision Viticulture' encompasses the use of a range of tools and technologies that allow viticulturists and winemakers to make more informed, targeted management decisions in the vineyard.

Precision Viticulture is an approach to winegrape production which recognises that the productivity of vineyards, as well as blocks within vineyards, can be inherently variable. Thus, vineyard management is targeted to 'zones' of similar performance (i.e. differential management rather than management which does not recognise spatial variability and is therefore implemented uniformly over large areas of varying performance). The reasons for using such technology are to:

• locate areas within blocks which have similar (or dissimilar) growing characteristics
• quantify how these areas (or zones) within a vineyard perform
• use the information (or data) to understand the reasons for the differences in performance
• make better management decisions with the aim of increasing production efficiency, profitability and/or sustainability.

Precision Viticulture Australia was established in 2006 in response to an increased uptake of precision viticulture technologies by the wine industry. A need was identified to improve the acquisition, processing and delivery of high resolution spatial data in a useable format.