For most of its modern history, wine science has been organised around two largely separate disciplines: viticulture and oenology. Adjacent fields — soil science, microbiology, economics, ecology, public health, cultural heritage — have informed wine knowledge from the outside. The premise of this congress is that the most important questions in the sector now sit precisely at those boundaries, and require a transdisciplinary approach by design.
An integrated vine and wine science treats the vineyard as an ecosystem and the winery as a node in a wider material economy. It asks how soil microbiology, water management and biodiversity shape grape composition; how that composition reaches the human body through bioactive compounds; how by-products feed back into agriculture, food, cosmetics and energy; and how the cultural heritage of wine regions sustains the social legitimacy of all of it.
This is not a rebranding exercise. It changes how research questions are framed, how programmes are funded, and how curricula are designed. It opens space for collaboration between researchers, industry stakeholders and policy-makers — and it places the practical, place-based realities of wine regions at the centre rather than the margin of the scientific conversation.
The 2027 edition of the Tokaj Wine Congress is structured to make that integration visible. Each of the seven sessions deliberately spans more than one traditional discipline, and the programme is designed to surface the connections between them.