South African wine farms a first for Google Street View

Google Street View is in the process of mapping their first wine farms. What makes this statement even better is that these wine farms are in South Africa.

If you have not yet played around on Google Street View, do yourself a favour and check it out. Although possibly not while at work, because believe me, it is addictive. Before you know it, you are either looking up every place you have ever been to and are meticulously comparing it to what it looked like in days gone, or you are looking up places that you long to go to. Either way, it’s a pretty sophisticated tool that enables you to see places at eye level from almost every angle.

Street View was first launched on the African continent in South Africa, just before the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. Some highlights from Street View in South Africa include imagery of dozens of cities and towns, the World Cup soccer stadia and heritage sites such as Vilikazi Street in Soweto and the Kruger National Park.

This ingenious tool has extended its reach to a few selected wine farms in South Africa, which are now the first wine farms in the world to be included in Google’s Street View service. What does this actually mean? Well it adds a whole new dimension (literally) when searching for and wanting to explore wine farms. This will mean that you can have a virtual tour of the wine farm before you actually go visit it. However, this initiative is not only useful to South Africans but is going to serve the international wine market greatly. Buyers from other continents will be able to view South African wine farms in an interactive manner, which will hopefully entice them to come and visit.

There are about now a total of 30 wine farms listed on Street View and it's Google's intention to include a wider range of businesses but that will take some time, said Google's Julie Taylor. "There's still a lot to be done and we are committed to investing in South Africa. The wine industry will hopefully form a key part." Taylor said.

The Street View service is part of Google's strategy to "map the world" and, of course, the winelands were of particular importance. The wine estates that are already included in Google’s Street View are:

Ataraxia Wines
Boekenhoutskloof Winery
Bouchard Finlayson
De Wetshof
Fairview
Glen Carlou
Groot Constantia
Groote Post
Hamilton Russell
Hartenberg
Iona Wines
Jordan Wines
Kaapzicht
Klein Constantia
Meerlust
Mooiplaas
Moreson
Morgenster
Paul Cluver
Raka
Rustenberg
Saronsberg
Strandveld
Vergelegen
Vilafonte
Villiera
Warwick Wine Estate
Weltevrede

Take a look at this video to see how the data for Google’s Street View for wine farms is collected. Although this film only shows the capturing phase, it is a lengthy process that can take months per farm and involves stiching images together as well as data capturing. View the video here.