American Journal of Enology and Viticulture (AJEV). doi: 10.5344/ajev.2018.17076 AJEV Papers in Press are peer-reviewed, accepted articles that have not yet been published in a print issue of the journal or edited or formatted, but may be cited by DOI. The final version may contain substantive or nonsubstantive changes. 1 Technical Brief 1 Environmental Impact of Wine Aging Process in 2 Oak Barrels in Wineries of La Rioja (Spain) 3 Francisco J. Flor, 1 Francisco J. Leiva, 1 Jorge L. García, 2 Eduardo Martínez, 1 4 Emilio Jiménez, 3 and Julio Blanco 1 * 5 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of La Rioja, Edificio Departamental. C/San 6 José de Calasanz 31, 26004 Logroño. La Rioja, Spain; 2 Department of Industrial Engineering and 7 Manufacturing, Institute of Engineering and Technology, Autonomous University of Ciudad 8 Juárez. Av. Del Charro 450 Norte, 32310, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México; and 3 Department 9 of Electrical Engineering, University of la Rioja, Edificio Departamental. C/San José de Calasanz 10 31, 26004, Logroño, La Rioja, Spain. 11 *Corresponding author (julio.blanco@unirioja.es; tel: (+34) 941 299 524) 12 Manuscript submitted Aug 25, 2017, revised Jan 12, 2018, Feb 12, 2018, accepted Feb 27, 2018 13 Copyright © 2018 by the American Society for Enology and Viticulture. All rights reserved. 14 15 Abstract: Producing quality wines is the primary objective of wine-making companies. Aging 16 plays a fundamental role in the vinification process involved in the production of quality wines. 17 This paper presents a gate-to-gate life cycle analysis (LCA) of all the productive processes 18 involved in aging one liter of wine in Quercus alba/petrea oak barrels for six months. The 19 research was undertaken using 225-L, 300-L, and 500-L barrels. 20 In the category Global Warming, aging in 225-L barrels has an environmental impact of 3.27 kg 21 CO2 eq./liter of wine for every liter aged for six months in Quercus alba and 3.18 E-02 kg CO2 22 eq./liter of wine for Quercus petraea. The same aging in 300-L and 500-L barrels has 23 environmental impacts of 2.21 kg CO2 eq./liter of wine and 1.58E-02 kg CO2 eq./liter of wine 24 respectively for Quercus alba. These last values are reduced to 2.18 E-02 kg CO2 eq./liter of wine 25 and 1.53 E-02 kg CO2 eq./liter of wine for Quercus petraea specie. 26 AJEV Papers in Press. Published online March 13, 2018.