Methodology
Assessing the pollution load of a winery

A database was compiled using measurements from the Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse (RMC) water agency and the Groupe Technique National sur les Effluents de Cave (France). Annual series were averaged, with the number of observations varying from 1 to 53 days. They cover winemaking practices, water consumption, discharge quantities and concentrations, and specific pollutant loads for certain unit operations. Trends are presented by region, bearing in mind that the regional context makes it fairly easy to group together types of winemaking activity.