Carbon footprint of wines from the finger lakes region in New York state

Abstract

The goal of this study was to evaluate the cradle-to-gate greenhouse gas emissions of Finger Lakes wine using life cycle assessment. It was hypothesized that the carbon footprint of Finger Lakes wines would be lower than that of wines from other regions, based on winery practices and climate conditions. Primary data was collected from three wineries representing a range of production volumes, and sensitivity analyses were also performed. Bottle production contributed the most to the impacts of the wine. Impacts associated with cultivation were highest for the winery with the smallest production volume. The cradle-to-gate greenhouse gas emissions for the three case studies ranged from 0.617 to 1.03 kg CO2eq bottle-1. These results suggest that wines from these three Finger Lakes wineries have among the lowest carbon footprints of wines globally (which range from 0.68 to 2.68 kg CO2eq bottle-1), promoting the need to assess the impacts of other wineries in this wine region.