VinoManAOP2

Viticultural management in the ‘Appellation d'origine protégée (AOP) - Moselle Luxembourgeoise’ under changing climatic conditions

Inspiration

The wine industry is traditionally an important socio-economic sector in many European regions and especially in the Luxembourgish Moselle valley. Weather and climate play a crucial role in determining the terroir of a given wine region, as meteorological conditions largely control grapevine growth, physiology, yield, and berry composition.

The impacts of climate change are however threatening the suitability of a region for viticulture in general, or the use of specific varieties. With regards to climate projections, it can be anticipated that wine typicity of traditional regions might be negatively impacted due to, e.g., higher temperatures, especially in the ripening period. Consequently, adequate adaption strategies need to be developed.

The implementation of suitable, cost-effective, and timely adaptation measures, based on predicted grapevine parameters, have the potential for significantly contributing to lower vulnerability, promote risk reduction, and improve the efficiency of the processes, as well as the economic sustainability of the sector.

Innovation

With a view to continuously adapting to accelerating climate change impacts, there is a pressing need for a more precise definition of viticultural measures in the specific context of the Luxembourgish Moselle region. Through the VinoManAOP2 project and together with their partners, LIST researchers aim to provide the main stakeholders with suitable viticultural strategies for climate change adaptation and support winegrowers to guarantee the economic sustainability of their estate. To do so, the researchers will rely on the models developed during the VinoManAOP project and combine them with regional climate change projection obtained from related projects (CHAPEL and H2020 Clim4Vitis).

If in the past insufficient heat consumption and, in consequence, incomplete grape maturity were a major problem, meanwhile, viticultural productions now face a much wider spectrum of potential threats (e.g. sunburn due to high radiation, thermal and drought stress during summer). VinoManAOP2 aims to tackle those challenges by developing strategies for controlling sunburn and drought stress, as well as deploying models for assessing climate change adaptation scenarios. Finally, while the VinoManAOP focus was set on viticultural measures for differentiating styles of Luxembourgish still wines, VinoManAOP2 will place the emphasis on “Crémants” originating from the AOP Moselle Luxembourgeoise.

Impact

VinoManAOP2 will not only bring innovative strategies for adapting Luxembourg’s viticulture to new challenges inherent to climate change, but will also provide an active support to winegrowers, consisting in adequate adaptation strategies for safeguarding the economic sustainability of the viticulture sector in the future.

Based on their strong expertise as well as past and current projects, the VinoManAOP2 team will deliver scientific novelty and innovation  by combining existing or developed viticultural models with up-to-date high-resolution climate change projections.

 

Research domains
  • Environment

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Dr Daniel MOLITOR
Dr Daniel MOLITOR
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