Linking Wine Culture and Geoheritage—Missing Opportunities at European UNESCO World Heritage Sites and in UNESCO Global Geoparks? A Survey of Web-Based Resources

Abstract

AbstractVine cultivation is strongly dependent on local terrain conditions, including geology, landforms and soils. This offers an opportunity to develop interpretation and geo-education that would holistically relate wine culture to abiotic environment. Wine-related cultural landscapes inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List and those UNESCO Global Geoparks, where wine production is an important economic activity or leaves a distinctive imprint on the landscape, are particularly suited to emphasize local geoheritage in this specific context. We analyzed official web-based resources of UNESCO World Heritage Committee, UNESCO Global Geoparks programme, individual World Heritage properties and individual global geoparks to evaluate whether causal relationships between geoheritage, geodiversity and wine culture are indicated at all, and if so, how they are presented and linked to geotourism and geo-education. Our analysis involved 14 World Heritage properties and 38 global geoparks, all located in Europe. General observation is that given web-based information alone, the theme is insufficiently explored and poorly communicated to the public, although more recent nomination dossiers for World Heritage contain extensive presentations of abiotic environment. These are, however, not very likely to be consulted by the general public. In global geoparks, wine culture is mainly presented as a sustainable local activity, with local wine as one of brand products, whereas geoheritage context is seldom considered in depth. Growing interest in wine tourism and increasing appreciation of the value of cultural landscapes provide a good background to develop geo-interpretation and thereby to raise awareness of geoheritage matters.