Stellenbosch University

About the partner

Climate change is already reshaping viticulture worldwide: rising temperatures, increasingly irregular rainfall, more frequent extreme weather events. WP1a was designed to respond to this challenge with concrete, replicable tools that help producers guide their decisions — where to plant, how to manage the vineyard, which varieties to adopt — in a rapidly changing context.
The work brings together two worlds of wine: the tradition-bound Old World of Europe, and the more experimentally flexible New World regions — South Africa, Argentina, Chile. Comparing these approaches produces meso-scale adaptation models, sustainable vineyard management strategies (irrigation, soil management, precision viticulture), experiments with more resistant grape varieties such as Piwi grapes, economic assessments of how sustainable these strategies are over time, and an analysis of the regulatory frameworks that currently hinder or support the adoption of more resilient practices.