Climate Change, Europe’s wineries have their say, coordinated by the Mach Foundation

The world of wine in the front row to win the challenge against climate change. Studying the impact of climate on viticulture in Europe to foster the development of an innovative community where research and industry pool their efforts in favour of an economy resilient to climate change: this is the objective of the online survey, aimed at wineries in six European countries (Italy, France, Cyprus, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain), thanks to the Medcliv project “Mediterranean Climate Vine and Wine Ecosystem”, coordinated by the Edmund Mach Foundation, which involves eight partners from the European Mediterranean and for Italy the CNR-Ibe.
The project is co-financed by Eit Climate-Kic, the European agency founded in 2010 by the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT). At the heart of the project is the wine-vine ecosystem and climate, with the project that will analyze in detail some aspects that are central to viticulture: phenological anticipation, the problem of drought, the repercussions on viticultural practices and grape quality, the lack of water and organic matter in the soil, chemical alterations of musts and organoleptic alterations of wines. Until 2022 Medcliv will work to promote the aggregation of national “ecosystems” in the wine sector around the effects of climate change. First step, the administration of a survey to the wineries of the six countries involved in the project.
The fact-finding survey will be used to define priorities for action by defining a map, region by region, of perceived climate change emergencies in the wine sector. The results will help to identify the likely scenarios of evolution in vineyard management and winemaking practice, as well as the attitude to take possible mitigation actions.