In Moldovan winemaking, it is the National Office for Vine and Wine (ONVV) that manages production of vine and wine products with protected geographical indication (PGI) and protected designation of origin (PDO). Do you know, how the necessary control of PGI wines is ensured (there are almost no PDO wines yet due to legislative changes)?
Step by step
According to ONVV winemaking expert, Elizaveta Breahna, the sector has come to this with time. Associations of PGI product producers have been created (Codru, Stefan-Voda, Valul-lui-Traian, and Divin). They developed Terms of Reference for vineyards and wine made from grapes harvested from them. Amendments were made to the Law on Vine and Wine (at the end of 2012), but wine factories could not start producing wines with geographical indications right away, since the corresponding technical regulations were not in place.
In June 2015, the Government approved technical regulations on “Organization of the Vine and Wine Market”. And winemakers got the right to make such products only starting with 2015 vintage. In total, they released 1.6 mil bottles of PGI wine during the first year.
Everything registered
Producers of grapes for production of vine and wine products with PDO or PGI and producers of the actual products are registered in the Vine and Wine Registry kept by the Office. Preliminary, they have been verified for compliance with the requirements in the Terms of Reference. And this is repeated every year. ONVV draws up a calendar plan for external control of producers for compliance with the requirements of the association’s Terms of Reference, while representatives of certification bodies conduct onsite verifications.
Besides, enterprises also have internal control mechanisms in place, when producers conduct self-assessment of the extent, to which they comply with the requirements of their GI association’s Terms of Reference, and ensure traceability of the released products.
Every year they file three declarations with the Office: about harvested or procured grapes, quantity of produced wine material by varieties, and remains before the new processing season. Five registries are kept in factory laboratories.
Certification
Each lot of PGI wines is certified separately. For this, the producer needs an external control act, and provides product samples for testing by physical and chemical indicators and safety. As well as for an organoleptic evaluation by the Tasting Committee consisting of authorized randomly nominated tasters.
Each lot of PGI wines is recorded in the registry and copies of all the issued certificates are kept in the same place. The Office makes sure that the number of issued specific wine names is not greater than the declared number. Therefore, the quality of domestic PGI wines raises no doubts.
