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Provision of services

Provision of Services

The Laboratory is equipped with the most modern analysis resources and is operated by appropriately trained and specialised technical staff. In this laboratory, compliance with strict qualitative criteria required for Port wine is assessed. These include, in particular, the requirements for Denomination of Origin certification and food product safety assessment.
The equipment upgrade that has taken place over the last few years was needed for the service to be able to give a speedy and efficient response to the increasing number of requests both from the sector Operators and from international markets.
The Laboratory of Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto is integrated within the Portuguese Quality System since 30 August 1994, through IPAC Accreditation (Accreditation Certificate No. L0115) in accordance with the provisions contained within NP EN ISO/IEC 17025 document: 2005 for various tastings, whether of Licorous Wines/Port Wines/Wines or of brandies.
The Laboratory of Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto is therefore a pioneer in Portugal in obtaining a Qualification Certificate in these areas within the wine-growing sector, particularly licorous wines and brandies. It is available for the provision of analytical services, both in the Port wine sector and also the national wine-growing sector in general.
The determinations that are used for wines and brandies employ official analysis methods or, in the absence of these, internationally recognised methods. Given the specificity of licorous wines, several analysis methods were adapted and assessed which compose the internal methods.
The analytical methods currently used in the Laboratory Service are specified on Price Lists, Wines and ADs.

Creation and Functions of the Tasting Panel

The IVDP Tasting Panel - whose creation dates back to the founding date of the IVP (1933) - is a collegiate body integrated in, and dependent on, the Tasting Service which reports to the Port Technical Services.

It is incumbent on the panel to pronounce, from the organoleptic perspective, on the quality of the Wines and Brandies which are submitted to them. The panel’s assessment may have several ends: awarding of 'Port Wine' Denomination of Origin and its supervision, and also the provision of services to the sector Operators.

Selection and Monitoring of Tasters

At this moment, the Tasting Service is formed by a head of service, 7 tasters, a coordinator and a wine/laboratory assistant. The tasters are selected for their sensory abilities and over a period of four months the stability, repeatability and intermediate accuracy of their results are evaluated. For this to become possible, about 10% of the total samples (submitted anonymously) that are tasted on daily basis are repetitions.
Statistical analysis of the processed information is used to detect any deviations and/or minor inconsistencies in the decisions of the tasters, in order to correct them and adjust them to the reality of the parameters defined. When these deviations are above 10%, the taster is removed from the panel.

Parameters analysed in the Tasting

Every day about 20 samples are tasted.
The samples are put into tasting in a certain order. First whites are tasted followed by the Ruby, Ruby Reserve, Tawny and Tawny Reserve categories. Finally special categories are tasted: Vintage, LBV, Tawny with Age Indication and Colheita, the younger wines before the older ones. All samples are analysed according to test method MIVP101 - Classification of organoleptic characteristics in groups or classes and scales within the following parameters: clarity (MIVP101 - Appendix 1), colour (MIVP101 - Appendix 2), aroma/bouquet (MIVP101 - Appendix 3), flavour (MIVP101 - Appendix 4), defects (MIVP101 - Appendix 5) and notation (MIVP101 - Appendix 6) and in Wines with an age indication (Tawny with an age indication, Colheita, LBV and Vintage) in addition to these parameters age is also evaluated (MIVP101 - Appendix 7).

The Consultative Committee and the Consultative Committee of Brandies

An Operator whose wine is failed by the Tasting Panel, may appeal against that decision and send the wine to be analysed by the Consultative Committee of Tasters which is an appeal body composed of seven tasters of recognized standing, chosen from among the technicians of the sector and appointed by the relevant Minister on the recommendation of the IVDP.
Similarly, an operator who has a brandy failed by the Tasting Panel, may appeal to the Consultative Committee for Brandies for re-evaluation of that brandy.

Facilities’ Improvements

The facilities of the Tasting Service, and more specifically the tasting room, underwent major modification work in recent years in order to provide ideal operating conditions which cancel out environmental interferences. To that end, individual tasting booths were optimised, equipped with a computer terminal for each of the panellists to input the data resulting from the sample evaluation, a ventilation and air conditioning system was installed to produce positive, odour-free air pressure - which prevents the entry of extraneous odours – and allowing temperature and humidity control. In addition to the structural modifications new working procedures were implemented which were intended to increase the strictness and independence of decision-making.

The Tasting Panel Accreditation
Today the Tasting Panel can be proud to be, at world level, a pioneer in the implementation of an Accreditation process, as required within the EU for official foodstuff control laboratories (Accreditation Certificate No. L0235 (Dec 1999)).
The conditions are therefore in place to carry out highly professional, impartial and strict work, taking daily decisions that gradually remove the subjectivity traditionally associated with wine tasting.

Tasting Types currently carried out at the Technical Tasting Service