Is there mutual methodology among the environmental impact assessment studies of wine production chain? A systematic review

When talking about environmental and sustainability topics, the wine sector plays a fundamental role ensuring that wine remains not only economically but also environmentally sustainable, hence the importance of conducting analyses to measure the impact of food production through Life Cycle Assessment tool. This paper aims to propose a systematic review of the LCA studies related to the grape and wine production chain providing both a qualitative and a quantitative analysis of methodologies used, and results proposed, as well as focusing the attention on carbon and water environmental indicators that can be evaluated using the LCA tool. Both the qualitative and the quantitative analysis showed a strong variability among the studies starting from the selection of the functional unit till the way the impact assessment is carried out. The results indicated the lack of homogeneity on the application of the LCA, emphasizing the need for deeper research on the wine sector. Based on the interpretation of the results, it was possible to identify the main drivers and barriers of the environmental impact assessment, allowing the contribution towards providing insights both for LCA practitioners and stakeholders of the wine sector. To this end, the main novelty of this work was to give an all-around view of the application of LCA tool in the wine sector providing a first step in the creation of a standardized procedure that harmonize the way a LCA study must be done. This opportunity would be a huge advantage for the scientific community, allowing the possibility to compare different wine production realities by using a globally recognized procedure without bias. Future research will have to focus on understanding and developing this scheme for enhancing the added value of the wine product. [Display omitted] •A systematic review is performed based on the PRISMA statement.•A qualitative and quantitative analysis among LCAs in the wine sector has been carried out.•Identification of the source of variability among the LCAs has been identified.•Foundation for the creation of a harmonized LCA procedure to guide future LCA studies has been proposed.•Possibility of using a standardized scheme to compare different wine production systems is remarked.