PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The EU is the world’s largest producer and exporter of wine, with three-quarters of its wine-growing areas located in Spain, France and Italy. However, these Mediterranean regions are increasingly exposed to extreme temperatures, frequent droughts, heavy rainfall and hail events.
The intensification of the impacts of climate change on vines and wines was demonstrated by recent scientific findings. They include:
- hail or spring frost that can ravage vine groves and destroy between 10% to 100% of yields, depending on the intensity, duration and location of climatic events
- the exposure to heavy rains, as well as to cyclic rains – especially if combined with warm temperatures – which can be the cause of diseases and lead winegrowers to apply more recurrent treatments to vines
- extreme temperatures and the excessive exposure to sun that can cause burns and the scalding of vines. This accelerates their fatigue, leading to the need to replace the vines regularly as well as to soil erosion
- climate change which has also altered the annual life cycles of the vines – known as the phenological phases – leading to a higher vulnerability to spring frost damage.
Climatic hazards have already negatively impacted annual wine production, changed the quality and taste of wine over recent years, making it more difficult for winegrowers to comply with the European Union’s (EU) Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) specifications.
Existing solutions such as anti-frost candles, heaters or cloud-seeding techniques do not offer an easy or adequate solution to tackle multiple climate hazards, and in addition they have negative environmental impacts.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE VINOSHIELD project aims to scale up the European wine sector's adaptation to climate change thanks to multifunctional protective nets. A single net is effective against different climatic and health risks, and has a lower environmental footprint compared to other existing mechanisms. Its effectiveness as demonstrated in previous studies is promising. However, it will now be applied across different geographic areas, with diverse topographies, soil qualities, sensitivities to climatic variations, grape varieties and agricultural practices, to test the suitability of this method in European countries. Even though multifunctional protective nets are made of plastic, the project includes actions to limit the degradation of microplastics from the nets into the soil. Furthermore, it will evaluate the use of compostable and biobased polylactic acid (PLA) plastic.
The overall project goal is to achieve a decrease in damage to vine areas annually from 30% to 5%, and to limit the use of phytosanitary products – designed to protect crops – from 3 to 2 annual treatments across a total area of 5 000 hectares (ha). Similarly, the project aims to secure a 24% increase in the turnover of the 830 participating winegrowers.
The specific objectives of the project are to:
- demonstrate and validate the performance of the protective nets against climate hazards on vine and wine in 9 vineyards in at least 6 regions across France (Bordeaux, Côtes du Rhône, the South-West, Loire), Italy (Emilia-Romagna) and Spain (La Rioja)
- quantify the positive environmental and socio-economic impacts of the protective nets and of their use over the experimental areas;
- ensure the sustainability of the value chain and replicability across EU Member States: by testing the business model, by recycling of nets at the end of their lifespan, and preparing replication across 6 European countries.
RESULTS
The project’s expected results are as follows:
Technical performance of the nets, ensuring a high protection level against climate hazards, will be monitored through 51 case studies performed each year across 15 plots in 7 regions and 6 grape varieties to:
- demonstrate protection achieved against A1 to A5 class events i.e. against hailstones equal to or larger than 1 millimetre (mm) in size
- reduction in sun exposure of up to 50%
- rain protection: the reduction in the water quantity at the bottom of vines by 95%
- frost protection: ensuring temperatures do not drop below -6ºC for more than 2 hours.
Impacts on vineyards:
- yield improvement of 33% at the end of the project
- grape and wine quality maintained – acidity, sugar, phenolic, alcohol content – and aligned with the high-quality standards expected for the region concerned.
Impacts regarding the use of nets:
- establish a LIFE VINOSHIELD winegrowers club, with at least 50 participants
- install 30 automation systems to roll nets up and down on 10 rows in at least 3 vineyards
- 50% time gain due to automation compared to manual roll up and down of the protective net over the year.
Environmental impacts:
- align with environmental labels such as organic farming certifications and France’s High Environmental Value (HEV) scheme
- demonstrate the recyclability of protective nests by establishing collection and recycling circuits
- evaluate the use of compostable PLA film.
Socio-economic impacts:
- over 70% acceptance by informed population, from citizens and local authorities, including where related to landscape integration
- 830 winegrowers trained to use the protective nets
- a maximum purchase price for protective nets
- 38 agreements signed with actors across the value chain including in relation to raw material suppliers, distributors, manufacturers, collectors and ambassadors – i.e. selected users that have an international reputation.
