VISCA

Climate change poses a significant threat to grapes produced for premium wines and is a big risk for the European wine industry. Changing temperatures and rainfalls can negatively affect grape quality and quantity with undesirable acid and sugar concentrations leading to undesirable changes in alcohol production.

VISCA (Vineyards Integrated Smart Climate Application) is a new Research and Innovation project, to help European wine producers tackle the challenges posed by climate change. Funded under the EU Horizon 2020 programme, the project has 11 members, including universities, research institutions, meteorology consultants and wine producers. Symington Family Estates are one of three wine producers taking part (the others are Codorniu in Spain and Mastroberardino in Italy).

VISCA will provide a Climate Service and Decision Support System that will integrate climate, agricultural and wine producer specifications to design medium and long-term adaptation strategies to climate change. The project will be validated by real demonstrations on the three demo sites in Spain, Italy and Portugal.