Unresolved issues in the accounting of biogenic carbon exchanges in the wine sector

Carbon Footprint (CF) can be of great importance for the dissemination of life-cycle information of products. The use of CF has recently increased, despite some methodology aspects being still not sufficiently addressed. This paper deals with the accounting of biogenic carbon exchanges, focusing on the wine sector, which has been the object of several life-cycle-based studies. A review of guidelines, standards and key papers has shown that there are still unresolved issues to be considered when accounting for exchanges of biogenic carbon, such as forest management, agricultural practices and land use, soil erosion, the inclusion of all parts of a tree, the inclusion of the end-of-life phase, etc. As a result, no clear-cut conclusions can yet be drawn with regard to biogenic carbon exchanges related to the life cycle of wine products.