Fermentation-Oriented Viticulture: A Narrative Review Linking Climate Change, Soil Fertility, Crop Protection and Must Microbiota Ecology

This narrative review develops fermentation-oriented viticulture as an agronomic-oenological framework linking vineyard environment, management and must ecology to fermentation performance. The literature from 2010 to April 2026 was synthesized through structured searches in PubMed and Google Scholar, complemented by targeted searches in MDPI, Frontiers, Nature, ScienceDirect, OENO One, PNAS and European Union regulatory sources, with emphasis on 2020–2026 publications and retention of older foundational sources. Current evidence indicates that must microbiota is not a linear derivative of soil or berry surfaces, but a network outcome of connected habitats spanning the viticultural biotope and grapevine-associated biocenosis (soil, rhizosphere, phyllosphere, berry, insect, atmospheric and winery). Climate warming, drought, altered phenology, soil fertility, nitrogen nutrition, crop-protection programs and bio-based inputs jointly modify berry chemistry, yeast-assimilable nitrogen (YAN), microbial inocula and pre-fermentative selection pressures. The review distinguishes fermentation-oriented viticulture from descriptive microbial terroir by defining practical endpoints: fermentation onset and completion, sluggish or stuck fermentation risk, microbial stability, spoilage taxa, volatilome development and wine typicity. It also proposes operational indicators and a decision matrix for integrating vineyard and winery management. The framework supports future multi-vintage studies combining climate, soil, agronomic metadata, YAN, microbiome profiling and microvinification outcomes.