Winter Wines as an Emerging Wine Category: Double Pruning, Human-Mediated Terroir and Market Perspectives

Abstract

The global wine sector faces climatic instability, changing consumption patterns and demand for differentiated products linked to origin, authenticity and experience. In this context, winter wines can be conceptualized as an emerging and still-consolidating wine category based on double pruning, a vineyard management strategy that shifts grape ripening and harvest to autumn–winter. This narrative and critical review integrates evidence from viticulture, enology, sensory science, microbiology, consumer research, wine tourism and market studies to examine winter wines not only as a technical outcome of double pruning, but also as an emerging wine category shaped by processes of formation, potential consolidation and market positioning. The review argues that winter wines are shaped by the interaction among winter ripening, cultivar adaptation, rootstock, canopy management, harvest timing and winemaking. It also proposes human-mediated terroir as a useful conceptual framework, because pruning reorganizes the temporal conditions through which climate, soil, biological material and human decisions influence wine identity. The Brazilian experience, particularly the protected geographical indication Vinhos de Inverno Sul de Minas, illustrates how technical innovation can be linked to geographical origin, collective reputation and symbolic value. Nevertheless, the category requires multi-region and multi-vintage studies, sensory characterization, consumer research and clearer communication strategies. Winter wines may offer a relevant model of innovation, climate adaptation and regional differentiation in contemporary wine markets.