The Inspection Plan

Publication in the April 10, 2002, issue of the Gazzetta Ufficiale [government newspaper of record] of the inspection plan, program and relative fees completed the legal framework for the application of the Ministerial Decree of May 29, 2001, which provided for a new approach to the monitoring of the production of Italian Denomination of Origin wines.
In fact, this decree institutes a system for monitoring all those active in the sector and all production phases from grapes to wine to the bottle with the aim of verifying fulfillment of the obligations imposed on all users of the denomination of origin by the regulations for the various sectors of production. The plan is divided into segments relative to the party subjected to inspection: vine-growers, winemakers and bottlers, and it provides for two types of activity that are closely connected to and coherent with one another.
The first regards findings as to conformity (i.e., the availability of the amounts of product requested) to declarations of grape production, to requirements for certification of suitability and to bottling communications of previously certified lots. These findings are based on the availability of documentation regarding vineyard registers, declarations of production, stocks, etc., all of which are subject to verification. These findings must be provided for all lots of wine and they will serve at the same time as an assessment in real-time of the situation of each individual establishments and, therefore, of the entire appellation.
The second regards inspections of grape producers and of establishment that process, bottle and ship wines. These inspections will be performed on a significant sampling of at least 25% of total annual production and will make it possible to compare on-site situations with documented declarations, thus providing a final check on the entire system.
Inspections carried out in the vineyard will assess the persistence of planting and agronomic conditions stipulated in production regulations, such as potential yield per hectare, etc. In the cellars inspectors will monitor observance of the practices indicated in the regulations and on the correspondence of the product to established minimum characteristics. Such assessments will be accomplished through samplings of musts and wines. Correspondence of product to the certified lots will be assessed in the bottling stage through chemical-physical and organoleptic analyses. And inspectors will also verify information appearing on labels.



	The Inspection Plan

summary tables	Publication in the April 10, 2002, issue of the Gazzetta Ufficiale [government newspaper of record] of the inspection plan, program and relative fees completed the legal framework for the application of the Ministerial Decree of May 29, 2001, which provided for a new approach to the monitoring of the production of Italian Denomination of Origin wines. In fact, this decree institutes a system for monitoring all those active in the sector and all production phases from grapes to wine to the bottle with the aim of verifying fulfillment of the obligations imposed on all users of the denomination of origin by the regulations for the various sectors of production. The plan is divided into segments relative to the party subjected to inspection: vine-growers, winemakers and bottlers, and it provides for two types of activity that are closely connected to and coherent with one another. The first regards findings as to conformity (i.e., the availability of the amounts of product requested) to declarations of grape production, to requirements for certification of suitability and to bottling communications of previously certified lots. These findings are based on the availability of documentation regarding vineyard registers, declarations of production, stocks, etc., all of which are subject to verification. These findings must be provided for all lots of wine and they will serve at the same time as an assessment in real-time of the situation of each individual establishments and, therefore, of the entire appellation. The second regards inspections of grape producers and of establishment that process, bottle and ship wines. These inspections will be performed on a significant sampling of at least 25% of total annual production and will make it possible to compare on-site situations with documented declarations, thus providing a final check on the entire system. Inspections carried out in the vineyard will assess the persistence of planting and agronomic conditions stipulated in production regulations, such as potential yield per hectare, etc. In the cellars inspectors will monitor observance of the practices indicated in the regulations and on the correspondence of the product to established minimum characteristics. Such assessments will be accomplished through samplings of musts and wines. Correspondence of product to the certified lots will be assessed in the bottling stage through chemical-physical and organoleptic analyses. And inspectors will also verify information appearing on labels.