Abstract
Many European winegrowing regions are located in mountain areas that are characterized by unique environmental conditions. These mountain viticultural areas (MVA) are particularly threatened by climate change, but their climate change vulnerability to climate change is largely heterogeneous because each region has different characteristics that influence their sensitivity and ability to adapt to new climatic conditions. This includes legal as well as socioeconomic factors that must be considered in addition to projected changes in climatic conditions to accurately quantify climate change vulnerability and develop tailored adaptation strategies. However, most existing studies exclusively focus on future projections of climate and neglect important interactions with legal and socioeconomic factors. Here, we combine multiple indicators related to climate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity on the level of single winegrowing regions to analyse the climate change vulnerability of MVA in Europe. We found that MVA are characterized by increased exposure to climate change compared to winegrowing regions outside mountain regions, but they also have a higher adaptive capacity which leads to a lower climate change vulnerability. Because of their heterogeneous topographic conditions and wide elevation ranges, MVA have unique possibilities for climate change adaptation which allows them to better adapt to climate change. However, they also face challenges, including limited access to transport infrastructure and negative demographic trends. The climate change vulnerability of MVA thus depends on complex interactions between physical, legal and socioeconomic factors and neglecting these interactions may lead to biased conclusions. Our results will support decision makers at all levels to find hot spots of climate change vulnerability among winegrowing areas, identify the critical factors for adaptation and efficiently plan and direct adaptation strategies.