Environmental and economic comparatives assessments of wine making processes: Application to the enrichment of wines

Abstract

The project Enrichment, managed by the French Institute for Vine and Wine (IFV) from 2013 to 2015, aimed to joint assessments of the potential environmental impacts and the costs for the cellars of two new enrichment methods, compared to methods commonly used. A “life cycle” approach has been chosen. Actually, the potential environmental impacts has been assessed following the recommendations from the normalized method of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The method of the Life Cycle Cost Assessment (LCCA) has been linked to the LCA in order to assess the costs of the different techniques. The method and the developed tool seem adapted to achieve to goals of the project: the comparison of environmental and economic impacts of the enrichment of 1 hl of must by 1% vol. using different techniques, whether additive or subtractive. Beyond, the project gives a framework for the environmental and economic comparison of different techniques for any other industrial process.