Viticulture and winemaking are important socioeconomic sectors in many European regions. Climate plays a vital role in the terroir of a given wine region, as it strongly controls canopy microclimate, vine growth, vine physiology, yield, and berry composition, which together determine wine attributes and typicity. New challenges are, however, predicted to arise from climate change, as grapevine cultivation is deeply dependent on weather and climate conditions. Changes in viticultural suitability over the last decades, for viticulture in general or the use of specific varieties, have already been reported for many wine regions. Despite spatially heterogeneous impacts, climate change is anticipated to exacerbate these recent trends on suitability for wine production. These shifts may reshape the geographical distribution of wine regions, while wine typicity may also be threatened in most cases. Changing climates will thereby urge for the implementation of timely, suitable, and cost-effective adaptation strategies, which should also be thoroughly planned and tuned to local conditions for an effective risk reduction. Although the potential of the different adaptation options is not yet fully investigated, deserving further research activities, their adoption will be of utmost relevance to maintain the socioeconomic and environmental sustainability of the highly valued viticulture and winemaking sector in Europe.

Grapevines are cultivated on six out of seven continents, between latitudes 4° and 51° in the Northern Hemisphere and between latitudes 6° and 45° in the Southern Hemisphere across a large diversity of climates (oceanic, warm oceanic, transition temperate, continental, cold continental, Mediterranean, subtropical, attenuated tropical, and arid climates). Accordingly, the range and magnitude of environmental factors differ considerably from region to region and so do the principal environmental constraints for grape production. The type, number, and magnitude of environmental constraints are currently undergoing changes due to shifts in climate patterns already observed for the past and predicted for the future. These changes are already affecting grape composition with observed changes in sugar and acidity concentrations. As with other components such as polyphenols or aroma compounds, their relationships to environmental changes are more difficult to quantify. In general, one can divide the expected climatic changes during the grape-ripening period into two scenarios: warmer and dryer and warmer and moister, with different responses for red and white grape varieties. The production challenges within this broad separation are vastly different, and the strategies to ensure a sustainable product need to be adapted accordingly. The economic impact of these changes is difficult to assess. An in-depth analysis is necessary to construct relevant scenarios and risk analysis for individual regions and to quantify the costs and/or benefits of regional climate developments. (JEL Classifications: Q1, Q54)

Interest in sustainability has increased significantly in the wine sector in the past few years, driven by customer interest, as well as the impact of global warming-intensified weather extremes on wine growers. For a sustainable future the wine industry must design its entire value chain in such ways that it conserves and regenerates the natural environment and at the same time promotes human rights, inclusion and equality. The current paper identified five key challenges which have to be overcome in order to reach this goal: (1) climate change impact and adaptation strategies, (2) the reduction of GHG emissions and creation of carbon sinks, (3) vineyard inputs, (4) packaging and (5) social and economic sustainability. For each of these five challenges research gaps and possible solutions are presented which enable a holistic improvement of the sustainability of the whole wine value chain from the vineyard to the consumers. Examples for this are strategies to reduce the use of pesticides in the vineyard as well as carbon insetting options in the vineyard. Additionally, it is of utmost importance that every educational institution integrates facts and vision into their teaching programs in a holistic manner. Together, these approaches form the basis for a realistic sustainability vision for the global wine industry.

Grapes for wine production are a highly climate sensitive crop and vineyard water budget is a decisive factor in quality formation. In order to conduct risk assessments for climate change effects in viticulture models are needed which can be applied to complete growing regions. We first modified an existing simplified geometric vineyard model of radiation interception and resulting water use to incorporate numerical Monte Carlo simulations and the physical aspects of radiation interactions between canopy and vineyard slope and azimuth. We then used four regional climate models to assess for possible effects on the water budget of selected vineyard sites up 2100. The model was developed to describe the partitioning of short-wave radiation between grapevine canopy and soil surface, respectively green cover, necessary to calculate vineyard evapotranspiration. Soil water storage was allocated to two sub reservoirs. The model was adopted for steep slope vineyards based on coordinate transformation and validated against measurements of grapevine sap flow and soil water content determined down to 1.6 m depth at three different sites over two years. The results showed good agreement of modelled and observed soil water dynamics of vineyards with large variations in site specific soil water holding capacity and viticultural management. Simulated sap flow was in overall good agreement with measured sap flow but site-specific responses of sap flow to potential evapotranspiration were observed. The analyses of climate change impacts on vineyard water budget demonstrated the importance of site-specific assessment due to natural variations in soil water holding capacity. The improved model was capable of describing seasonal and site-specific dynamics in soil water content and could be used in an amended version to estimate changes in the water budget of entire grape growing areas due to evolving climatic changes.

The evaluation of the current and future impact of climate change on viticulture requires an integrated view on a complex interacting system within the soil-plant-atmospheric continuum under continuous change. Aside of the globally observed increase in temperature in almost all viticulture regions for at least four decades, we observe several clear trends at the regional level in the ratio of precipitation to potential evapotranspiration. Additionally the recently published 6th assessment report of the IPCC (The physical science basis) shows case-dependent further expected shifts in climate patterns which will have substantial impacts on the way we will conduct viticulture in the decades to come.Looking beyond climate developments, we observe rising temperatures in the upper soil layers which will have an impact on the distribution of microbial populations, the decay rate of organic matter or the storage capacity for soil organic carbon (SOC). All this influences the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the viscosity of water in the soil-plant pathway, altering the transport of water. Interactions between micro-organisms in the rhizosphere, the grapevine root system, degradation and fixation processes of SOC are complex and poorly understood but respond to environmental factors (such as increased soil temperatures), the plant material (rootstock for instance), and the cultivation system (for example bio-organic versus conventional, cover crop use versus open tillage). Increasing SOC stocks is discussed as a measure to reduce soil GHG emissions with the potential to improve the balance between GHG emissions and carbon removal from the atmosphere. Yet it is difficult to deduct the impact of climatic changes and cultivation practices on patterns of carbon storage or losses from soils. This paper presents a first attempt to quantify these potential impacts on SOC for a vineyard location using the RothC-model (Coleman and Jenkinson, 2005) in combination with the Geisenheim long-term (> 100-year) soil temperature record and climate predictions by the STAR II-model of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact using a medium realization run (Orlowsky et al., 2008).It is shown that retaining pruning wood and using a full cover crop yielded a SOC increase of 16.2 t C ha-1 over time. However, CO2 emissions over the simulated time span were only slightly less than C-storage in the soil. It is concluded that cover crops in vineyards helps to achieve CO2-neutrality but additional measures are required to make vineyards a significant C-sink.

The predicted developments in climate are region-specific and adaptation can only be successful considering the regional characteristics with its diverse technical, environmental, economic and social implications. Beyond some obvious adaptation strategies in response to emerging environmental constraints for example there are many more “basic” challenges below “the surface”. One of the key concerns for many regions is the availability of water and how increasing temperature will drive the evaporative demand of the atmosphere. For this, individual regions need to be analysed to quantify possible associated risks. This paper will address differences in regional water relations of grape growing areas in different parts of the world as a basis to address the points listed above.