Assessing vine water status is crucial to optimising cultural practices, including irrigation strategies, to guarantee environmentally and economically sustainable viticulture in a context of increasing water shortages and global warming. Vine water status can be assessed indirectly, via soil-based or atmospheric-based methods, or directly via plant-based methods. This brief review aims to provide an up-to-date perspective on findings in the literature comparing plant-based methods. Scientific advances regarding hydraulic regulation in vines are outlined and applied to discuss the strengths and limitations of direct methods for assessing vine water status, particularly in the context of drought and/or high vapour pressure deficit (VPD). Finally, the methods are compared according to operational criteria that should help in choosing a tool to assess the vine water status for day-to-day decision making, especially in irrigation.