Environmental Performance of Sparkling Wine Production Across the Value Chain—A Systematic Review of LCA Studies

This systematic review examines the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental performance of sparkling wine production across its value chain. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, a structured search in Scopus and Web of Science identified 17 relevant studies published between 2015 and 2025. The results show that environmental hotspots are consistently associated with viticultural inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, and fuel use), energy consumption in winery operations, packaging—particularly glass bottle production—and distribution. Carbon footprint values typically range from 0.9 to 1.9 kg CO2eq per bottle, with packaging accounting for up to 55–60% of total impact. Methodologically, most studies adopt an attributional LCA approach, apply partial system boundaries, and focus primarily on climate change, limiting comparability and completeness. Conversely, sparkling wine-specific stages, such as secondary fermentation and aging, remain underrepresented. Overall, the findings reveal substantial methodological heterogeneity across studies, particularly in functional units, system boundaries, and impact assessment methods. However, processes specific to sparkling wine production remain underrepresented, limiting the accuracy of environmental characterization for these systems. This review highlights the need for harmonized cradle-to-grave LCA frameworks, bottle-based functional units, and broader impact categories to improve the robustness and comparability of LCA applications in sparkling wine production.