Water footprint assessment of some Italian wines: a territorial perspective
The main intent of this paper is to examine the potential typical wine production specialisation in some Italian geographical areas regarding virtual water consumption. The second purpose is to analyse and evaluate the water footprint data of two DOC wines from in vineyards in the North and South and Islands of Italy with the intent of showing that typical wines have a lower water footprint. The principle reason behind this can be found in the fact that the main component of virtual water tied to DOC or DOCG wine production is green water, as irrigation and fertilisation are banned for these categories of wine production. Moreover, growing good crops in the traditional areas of cultivation lets these typical wines be made in an even more sustainable way, in spite the fact that the yield of litres per hectares are limited to precise levels.