As climate change reshapes the global landscape, the French wine industry is taking proactive steps through its Vitilience programme — a forward-thinking initiative that combines strategy with practical action. At the programme’s core lies a network of demonstration sites, where region-specific solutions are tested in real-world conditions, in close collaboration with local stakeholders.
Contents:
- A growing network
- Real-world laboratories
- Thrifty, sustainable and replicable
- Collective intelligence at work
- Paving the way for sustainable change
A growing network
Four new demonstration sites have joined the national network* coordinated by the Vitilience programme which is managed by the French Vine & Wine Institute (IFV) and funded by FranceAgriMer (7.5 million euros in 2024-2028). This brings the total number of sites to eight. The avowed aim is to reach around twenty experimentation platforms by 2028 spread across all of the country’s wine regions. “New applications are currently being examined by the scientific committee. As per the recommendations of the INRAE-LACCAVE metaprogramme which was the catalyst for the national climate change mitigation plan in 2021, Vitilience focuses on a strong regional rooting as a critical way of responding to the range of regional climate effects”, explains IFV engineer Mélissa Merdy who is the programme’s national coordinator. Another major shift is that, whereas previously research work often involved isolated levers, this project prioritises winning combinations. “The aim is to adjust practices but also to mitigate their environmental impact, by pivoting from single-factor approaches to systems thinking and from fundamental research to experiments that are ready to be shared and replicated”.
Real-world laboratories
Each demonstration site is both a technical and a collective tool, combining vineyard plots, an experimental winery and local governance that is representative of stakeholders and tasked with defining priorities, selecting practices to be tested and managing trials. In Beaujolais–Jura–Savoy, the Vitopia 2051 project, rolled out by SICAREX Beaujolais**, illustrates this rationale. “In 2018, we experimented with several agronomic levers – hail nets that also provide shade, adjusting the height of the grapevine trunk to reduce heat stress, reducing leaf surface and selecting later-budding Gamay to avoid harvesting too early”, explains SICAREX director Sophie Penavayre, who is also technical manager at Inter Beaujolais and project advisor. “But these levers were tested individually. Vitilience means that we can now combine them in a way that aligns with winegrowers’ practices”
Thrifty, sustainable and replicable
Starting in September, Vitopia 2051 will launch a new chapter focusing on ‘thrifty’ winemaking – using less water, less energy and fewer inputs. Several avenues are being explored from temperature control to hygiene, sulphur and yeast. A trail involving bottle reuse will complement the programme, embracing the entire production chain. Alongside this, SICAREX is working on the vineyard of the future. A dedicated plot will host trials of new grape varieties, rootstock, training systems and layouts that promote agro-ecology. “The aim is to design a replicable model whilst also factoring in the uncertainties that inevitably arise with any innovation. This is a responsibility that winegrowers cannot always shoulder on their own”, stresses Penavayre.
Collective intelligence at work
Designed from the outset as a collective project, Vitilience brings together around twenty national partners (INRAE, INAO, CNIV, etc.) and revolves around a specialist and an advisor in every region so that targets can be adapted to align with local realities. In Champagne, efforts are focused on preserving aromatic integrity; in Occitanie, on water management; in the Loire Valley, on adapting techniques… “Some adaptations, like planting densities, imply long-term choices. These are difficult decisions to change once they have been introduced”, stresses Merdy. Hence the importance of long-term support.
Paving the way for sustainable change
Four years, however, is very little on the scale of a perennial crop. In order to go beyond this timeframe, a simulation engineer is due to be recruited in conjunction with INRAE to produce long-term projections and assess the robustness of the solutions tested. “Vitilience is a starting point not an end point”, points out Merdy. The programme includes technical days, field visits, workshops, videos and conferences to disseminate the findings and encourage on-boarding. “Ultimately, our research could also fuel changes to production specifications or assessment systems for innovations. If this works, that would be great news. If not, it would at least be a response by research!” concludes Penavayre. As viticulture reinvents itself, experimentation is providing the compass so that winegrowers can hold on to their grapes, and their sanity.
Florence Jaroniak. ©lorenza62/ AdobeStock
To find out more: www.vignevin.com/vitilience/le-projet/
www.vignevin.com/vitilience/les-demonstrateurs/vitopia-2051
*Viticors’Alti (CRVI, Corse), Demoniacc (Gironde chamber of agriculture), Vitopia 2051 (SICAREX, Beaujolais-Jura-Savoie), Résiloire (IFV Montreuil-Bellay), Combioclim (Occitanie regional chamber of agriculture), 3C (BNIC, Cognac), Adam (Centre du Rosé) and Motives (IFV Orange).
** SICAREX Beaujolais is a centre for applied research in viticulture and oenology that was established by the industry and has its own experimental vineyards and winery at Domaine du Château de l’Éclair.