Subterranean Secrets under Tokaj

Tibor Góg / Novabird

In wine, truth, in laser, precision – this is how we looked below Hímesudvar

​Recently, when we showed up someplace with our scanners, we often got asked: „Can it see underground?” Well, we can say we’re capable of a lot of things, so we decided to try this out too. Why is it worth it to delve underground? See Novabird’s article about it.

​In Tokaj, wine is a fundamental source of sustenance and therefore, a frequent conversation topic too. With how it is around here, wine and water brought us together with the owner of Hímesudvar Winery, Péter Várhelyi. There were times we fished for perch out on the Tisza river, or discussed the state of the wine region next to a bottle of fine wine.
This time, however, our relationship sailed to different waters. Péter joined the camp who always asks the same question: „what do you do exactly?” and after listening to our short explanation, he requested us to do the same analysis at Hímesudvar. We were happy to accept the assignment.
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The laser, the virtual key to your cellar
We began the explanation at the most basic level. You’ve got the red pointy laser rangefinder thing right? That little device that fits into the palm of your hand and tells you how many millimeters are between you and the wall. Well, imagine one just like that, but much smarter: our largest laser scanner scatters its red dots to all directions, around 2 millions of them each second. Basically, it creates a full 3D image in a 100-meter radius in the span of a few hours.
With this kind of device, it’s not just the ceiling you can measure. You can also check the distance between the cellar tunnels and the surface, you can double-check your wine barrel’s potential spot, you could even identify where the ventillation shafts end on the surface level as well.

Cellars beneath the estate of Hímesudvar

Cellar wing under the mountain with ventillation shaft

​The reality of the cellar, virtually
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The goal of this project was for the complete world of Hímesudvar to move into the virtual space – sadly without wine but with the utter precision of millimeters. This means we’ve discovered every nook and cranny of the cellar, even that which is unseen to the naked eye. This is how virtual Hímesudvar was made: a precise, detailed 3D model, which isn’t just useful to its current day inhabitants, but could prove useful in future winemaking efforts as well.
It also records the present, which later on could be compared with other measurements and analyses, indicating changes in structure. For future construction projects it could prove invaluable to engineers, providing information about the exact details of the entire estate. These kinds of details would’ve come in really handy a quarter of a century ago and the photos made of the cellar collapse also support this.

Cellar collapse 2000/1.

Cellar collapse 2000/2.

Cellar collapse 2000/3.

​The entire summary allows us to see the exact positioning of the tunnels and see it compared to the surface buildings. It’s great for measuring where to expand and what distance is between each of the cellar’s wings.

Map summary

Can it see underground?
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And to answer the age-old question: can the scanner truly see underground? Well, no. But if you do have a cellar and we’ve run it through our scanners, we will show you the result and you’ll find yourself saying: YES! It really does.
We’ll see what Péter’s creativity makes out of the results, but one thing’s for sure: that cellar’s virtual model is on his computer, which can be viewed and inspected with millimeter precision at any given time.
And what else could I say? In this cellar, every single millimeter counts – because this is the source of the best wine Tokaj could offer.

Laser scanner 3D image

Laser scanner 3D image

​Nowadays it’s common for many guests and visitors to take super high quality pictures and make videos using their phones, which all help to make a certain place more popular. This new, modern, visually impressive 3D image technology could be useful in similar marketing tactics.

​If You have any ideas that you want realised with the help of such a device, take a look at our case studies here and feel free to contact us!

translated by Mara Várhelyi