State of the art of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the wine industry

One of the elements of growing importance to define wine quality is its environmental profile. The most consolidated methodology for assessing the environmental impacts of products is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Aiming at quantifying and/or communicating the environmental impacts of products, a large number of LCA studies have been conducted so far in the agri-food sector. Besides the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) modelling of the agricultural phase, LCA of wine is also affected by specific production processes at the winery stage. Wine production is a complicated activity involving several key issues such as the adopted technologies, quality of grapes or the ability of oenologists. Even if the basic inputs are grapes, yeasts and some chemicals, the use of these raw materials may vary enormously, according to the technologies available at the wineries. In a modern wine-making company the transformation of grapes to wine, goes through various thermal, clarification, filtering, stabilisation, and aging processes that lead to products of different quality. This paper critically analyses the national and international literature on LCA of wine. The major aim is the investigation of LCA methodological approaches in order to evaluate the need of product specific guidelines and other research efforts in the wine industry.