The topic of the OENOBIO Conference “Organic viticulture facing climate change – New challenges in organic wine production and marketing” was divided in two sessions open to the general public, particularly to companies, wineries and cellars, the inter-professional sector, decision-makers, association members and researchers. With 410 participants spread over the two sessions, the conference was a great success for all OENOBIO partner institutions, which are:
• University of Bordeaux, France (coordination)
• University Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
• University of Turin (Italy)
• University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest (Romania)
• Hochschule Geisenheim University, Germany
• Vignerons Bio Nouvelle Aquitaine, France
• Ecovin, Germany.
Interestingly, besides the project-involved countries Germany (60 participants), France (44 participants), Italy (19 participants), Romania (55 participants) and Spain (33 participants), the OENOBIO Conference counted 31 additional countries, including overseas from which participants followed the online presentations. The speakers were all renowned experts from the fi elds of research, the wine industry and from organic associations. Some questions and topics discussed during the conference were as followed, involving practice and industry for exchanging information and to promote cooperation in organic viticulture:
• EU actions to support organic wine
• Viticulture under changing climatic conditions: an equation with (too) many variables?
• Could organic viticulture mitigate eff ects of climate change?
• Facing changes in viticulture – experience of a winery. Estate Alois Lageder – Alto Adige.
• Strategies of organic sparkling wine production under changing climatic conditions
• The challenge of sulphite content reduction in organic wines: possible strategies for red winemaking
• Consumer preferences: trends and reasons buying organic sparkling wines
The 2nd OENOBIO Conference was one out of three conferences as part of the Erasmus+ funded OENOBIO program, which started in 2018 with a project duration of three years. The 1st OENOBIO Conference was conducted on November 18, 2019, at the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest in Romania regarding “Progress and challenges of organic viticulture and winemaking”. The 3rd OENOBIO Conference will be held on July 12, 2021, at the University of Bordeaux in France.
Besides the organization of the three conferences the main objectives of the strategic partnership OENOBIO are:
• Providing knowledge and training of students in organic grape and wine production in the EU in a multidisciplinary framework with the aim to internationalize the training by developing a pathway Master program between the partners
• The organization of annual two-weekly summer schools
• The creation of a new educational and pedagogical tool: a "Learning Management System" (LMS) as a e-learning collaborative platform for exchanges between lecturers and students.
After Hochschule Geisenheim University was hosting the 1st OENOBIO Summer School from the July 15 to 26, 2019, the two remaining summer schools will be both conducted in 2021. Due to COVID-19 the 2nd OENOBIO Summer School hosted by University Rovira i Virgili in Spain initially planned in summer 2020 was postponed and will be conducted around Easter 2021. The 3rd OENOBIO Summer School will take place from June 28 to July 9, 2021, in Italy and will be hosted by University of Turin. Master students and advanced Bachelor students of all viticulture and oenology programs at Hochschule Geisenheim University are welcome to apply for attendance when application procedures are open. For further information about the OENOBIO project and the 2nd OENOBIO Conference visit the OENOBIO website: http://oenobio-project.eu/
