If temperatures rise because of global warming, labour costs are likely to follow suit, said Andreas Flouris of the School of Exercise Science at the University of Thessaly in Greece.
"I would not be surprised to see the same results being repeated in California, across southern Europe and in Australia. The environment where vines grow is more or less the same," Flouris said, adding there is no evidence yet to confirm this for certain.
Wine is one of Cyprus's main agricultural exports and is very labour intensive with vines being tended and harvested by hand.
But if vineyard owners are made aware of the problem in advance, they can offer relatively simple ways to help workers cope, Flouris told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Simple changes like encouraging labourers to dress in light and bright clothing which reflects the sun's radiation and does not absorb the heat as much would make a difference, said Flouris.
"They tend to wear a lot more (clothing) than they should," he said.
Other solutions include offering cold drinks and breaking up their shifts so they can rest when temperatures reach their peak each day.
"The idea is to have some low-cost solutions that ... will have a major impact on the productivity of these workers."
In the study, published in the Temperature journal and is the first of its kind in Europe the researchers say, Flouris and others followed workers at four separate vineyards.