Rethinking Prosecco sparkling wine production: innovations for energy savings

Energy efficiency is crucial to improve sustainability of the wine sector and represents one of the few areas where wineries can directly intervene, from a life cycle assessment perspective. In this context, with the aim of achieving energy savings, our research proposes a different approach within the Prosecco sparkling wine production process, which represents almost 15% of total Italian production. Starting from a comprehensive review of scientific literature, the most energy-intensive phases of the Martinotti-Charmat method were identified and analyzed to target key areas for improvement. Alternative management strategies for the must preparation, fermentation, stabilization, refermentation, and bottling phases were explored, ensuring that product quality was consistently maintained at a high standard. Where no literature data were available, simulations were conducted using a custom-developed model to quantify potential energy savings. Results show that adopting the optimal scenario can achieve energy savings over 30%, underscoring the importance of temperature management and the potential of production process redesign strategies. These findings set a benchmark for energy sustainability within the sparkling wine industry, underscoring the significant opportunities for innovation through the implementation of tailored and adaptive process adjustments.