Greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation options for German wine production

Abstract In the light of a dire need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from food value chains, this paper analyses GHG emissions from wine production based on primary data from 5 wineries, one wine cellar and 9 grape producers in Germany and explores main emission sources based on their contributions to variance. Considering system boundaries from cradle to gate we found a 90% confidence interval for results between 0.753 and 1.069 kg CO 2 e per bottleof wine. Main contributors to variance were bottleweight (31%), electricity usage (18%), heat (11%), yield (−9%), and diesel use in vineyards (9%). Looking at production process phases, 19% of emissions resulted from the production of wine grapes, while 81% were attributable to the wineryphase, mainly to the packaging materials (57%). Exploring the mitigation potential of a reduction in bottleweight, reuse of glass bottles, increase in packaging volume and renewable energies, we found that the reuse of glass bottlesdeserves close attention from wine producers, consumers, and policy makers who strive for an effective decarbonization of the wine value chain. The mitigation potential of the reuse of an average bottleexceeds the mitigation potential from a reduction in bottleweight by more than threefold. A combination of the replacement of grid electricity by renewable energies, bottleweight reduction and reuse can curb GHG emissions per bottleof wine by 47%.