Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a powerful tool that allows evaluation of the environmental performances of a product, service or process considering the whole life cycle or a part of it. In the wine sector, the application of LCA has grown significantly in recent years and several studies have been carried out about this topic that are similar to other research fields. Nowadays, LCA is an important and acknowledged environmental assessment tool but its application to the wine sector is still in a developing phase. For this reason, the present study proposes a critical review of papers dealing with both the wine sector and LCA. The critical review points out that the main wine hotspots are the viticulture phase (mainly due to fuel, fertilizer and pesticides consumption) and the wine primary packaging production (due to glass bottles). Furthermore, the papers taken into consideration have a wide variability in the system boundaries definition as well as a shortage of availability of original and site-specific inventory data. Such key factors are sensitive aspects that have a huge influence on the results of a study and they are also affected by a wide variability: these issues need further scientific contribution through future studies.

Although there is evidence of surface-based storm drainage systems in early Babylonian and Mesopotamian Empires in Iraq (ca. 4000–2500 BC), it is not until after ca. 3000 BC that we find evidence of the well organized and operated sewer and drainage systems of the Minoans and Harappans in Crete and the Indus valley, respectively. The Minoans and Indus valley civilizations originally, and the Hellenes and Romans thereafter, are considered pioneers in developing basic sewerage and drainage technologies, with emphasis on sanitation in the urban environment. The Hellenes and Romans further developed these techniques and greatly increased the scale of these systems. Although other ancient civilizations also contributed, notably some of the Chinese dynasties, very little progress was made during the Dark ages from ca. 300 AD through to the middle of the 18th century. It was only from 1850 onwards that that modern sewerage was “reborn”, but many of the principles grasped by the ancients are still in use today. This paper traces the development of the sewer from those earliest of civilizations through to the present day and beyond. A 6000 year technological history is a powerful validation of the vital contribution of sewers to human history.