PROFILE
The laboratory’s history is a long one: it was created in 1973 to help producers in the historic Chianti
zone and characterize the wine from the chemical-physical and sensory standpoints. Through the years it
has broadened its work in order to offer consortium members and others interested in a testing service
that is increasingly more complete and integrated as a support to all company work. Although its core work
is in the wine sector it has enlarged its field and developed tests for other foods like olive oil, olives,
saffron and honey and for other sectors, with specific focus on agrarian analyses (soil and leaves) always
considered important to making fine wine. Today it is a hothouse of projects and a strategic partner for
clients, able to satisfy any request for testing or consultancy. It is also considered one of the best and
best-known laboratories in Europe, to the point of being a reference for other Italian and European
laboratories and certification boards.For years the laboratory has been working in Chianti, providing services for the enology sector, and recently entered the food & produce and environmental sectors as well.
OFFICAL ACCREDITATION
In 2001 the laboratory was given SINAL accreditation (No. 338), thereby gaining authorization from the Italian Ministry of Agricultural and Forestry Policies to perform official tests, nationwide, in the grape-growing, winemaking and olive oil sectors and to issue test certificates for wine exports in accordance with standards currently in force. Its accredited tests have grown in step with the laboratory’s own growth and currently number 240 (some of them with many parameters); they are concerned with different aspects in the fields of food & produce, microbiology, residue, the environment and materials in contact with food.
Since May 2007 it has been listed in the Tuscany Region register of laboratories running tests in the sphere of voluntary inspection procedures for food industries (HACCP).
AIMS
Constantly implementing new instrumentation, the laboratory aims at offering fast and reliable chemical and microbiological analyses for food & produce and for environmental protection.
- Reliable results on which to base important and economically important decisions
- Customer satisfaction, guaranteeing constant growth and continuous assistance
- Completeness of service (from testing to consultancy), with timetables and in ways agreed upon with the client
- Quick response times, competitive prices, excellent quality/price ratio, samples pickup at client premises
THE SERVICES CARD
This is a tool with which the Chianti Classico Wine Consortium Laboratory formally declares the commitments it assumes and the forms of guarantees it provides in dispensing services that meet its clients’ needs.
Its commitments to quality service are:
- Accreditation: the laboratory is accredited by SINAL and constantly implements and improves its own quality system, also by means of customer satisfaction and/or complaint questionnaires.
- Professionalism: the laboratory staff is highly professional in terms of both technical-educational training and experience. It is committed to explaining test results so that clients can get all the information possible from the test certificate.
- Updating: test equipment and computer hardware and software are kept in step with technological development through periodic investments.
- Transparency: the user can request documentation on the laboratory’s services, as per the laws in force. There is complete evidence of all the stages of the test process: from picking up and bringing in the sample to the start of testing and the conclusive report.
- Efficiency: the organization strives constantly for efficiency to guarantee final results.
- Impartiality: the laboratory staff does its work with the utmost commitment, according to criteria of objectivity, fairness and impartiality.
- Privacy: in performing its work the laboratory handles data as per Italian Legislative Decree 196/2003.
ENSURING QUALITY RESULTS
To guarantee the quality of its test results, technical skills and impartiality, the laboratory participates in ring tests and belongs to inter-laboratory circuits accredited by the international standards in force (ILAC – G13:2000), organized by pertinent organizations for the test matrixes and most significant tests. In particular we cite those on:
- Wine
- Soil
- Oil and fats
- Saffron
RESEARCH
The laboratory works with various research organizations to develop and perfect innovative analysis technologies in order to offer its clients a service that meets present demands and anticipates future needs. It has, and continues to, engage in research projects in cooperation with universities and renowned institutes in the grape and wine sectors so as to provide concrete answers to winery problems. The experience it has acquired is at the service of companies interested in researching and developing test methods suitable for quantitatively and qualitatively monitoring classes of natural molecules with biological activity in raw food materials, in finished products and in work waste of plant origin: the so-called markers, useful in defining the quality of food products.
CLIENTS
The laboratory’s versatility and continual search for solutions to new problems has enabled it to widen its category of clients, which today are:
- Grape and wine companies belonging to the consortium
- Companies throughout Italy for tests on wine, oil and soil
- Wine and oil production technicians
- Trade associations
- Chianti Classico farm vacation enterprises
- Restaurants, bars, hotels, groceries
- Olive presses
- Cork manufacturers
- Makers of waste-recycling plants
- Test labs seeking reliable results
- The Tuscany region and public administrations
- Certification boards
- Italian universities
ORGANIZATION
| ADDRESS | Via Scopeti 155 – Sant’Andrea in Percussina 50026 S.Casciano V.P. (Florence) |
| TELEPHONE | (+39) 055 8228514/5/6/7 |
| FAX | (+39) 055 8290867 |
| WEBSITE | www.labchianticlassico.it |
| laboratorio@chianticlassico.com | |
| HOURS | Monday to Friday: 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., 1:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. |
The laboratory has the following test departments:
-
Chemical department, divided into:
- Enology laboratory
- Oil laboratory
- Foliar diagnostics laboratory
- Water laboratory
- Food laboratory
- Spices laboratory
- Aroma laboratory
- Sensorial laboratory
- Contaminants laboratory
- Phytopharmacology laboratory
- Labeling laboratory
-
Microbiology department, divided into:
- Enological microbiology laboratory
- Food microbiology laboratory
-
Consultancy:
- Quality, safety and HACCP
- Traceability
- Sampling service
- Official certifications
PERSONNEL
The laboratory staff is highly qualified, skilled and composed of:
1 graduate in chemistry (5-year degree course)
1 graduate in chemistry (5-year degree course) with a major in test and analysis methods
1 graduate in 1st-level chemistry (3-year course)
1 graduate in agrarian sciences (5-year degree course) with Master’s in enology
1 graduate in biochemistry (5-year degree course)
1 chemistry specialist (diploma)
1 enologist
1 olive oil taster registered in the regional roster
1 chemistry technician trained in workplace safety
This differentiation in education and acquired experience makes it possible to deal with problems from an interdisciplinary viewpoint and offer clients solutions that remain valid through time. Moreover, the technical personnel constantly take refresher courses and are continually tested in-house according to managerial methods used by the accreditation organization. Thanks to the staff’s experience and the ability to run multiple and specific tests, the laboratory has become a reference point for other laboratories working in Italy and for European certification boards, for which it does quality controls on wines requiring certification.
INSTRUMENTATION
Being equipped with vanguard, highly automated test instruments makes it possible to run many more extremely sensitive tests on the quality of food & produce products and on environmental specimens. Laboratory potential is 100 samples per day. Its instrumentation can be divided into:
Titration: titration is routine in the wine and environment sectors. The laboratory has two automatic titrating instruments with which to test pH, total acidity, volatile acidity, free and total sulfur dioxide, sugars, chlorides, APA.
Spectroscopy:
- FAAS: flame atomic absorption spectroscopy to analyze metal trace elements
- ICP/OES: optical plasma with hydrides kit to analyze metallic and non-metallic elements on the ultra-trace level
- UV/VIS spectrophotometer: to evaluate an entire set of parameters, including a wine’s chromatic characteristics
Chromatography: both liquid and gaseous, chromatography is an extremely versatile technique that makes it possible to analyze many molecules, from food contaminants and environment polluters to parameters that characterize the quality of a food. Each instrument has an automatic sampler and thermostat-controlled column kiln in order to lessen test time and improve result reproducibility.
- GC/MS: gas chromatography with mass detector and automatic sampler for SPME, used for example to find volatile molecules that can provoke sensorial alterations in wine and other food products.
- GC/FID: gas chromatography with flame-ionizing detector, ideal for establishing superior alcohols in wine and fatty acids in oil.
- LC/MS: liquid chromatography with mass detector equipped with triple quadruple, an extremely sensitive instrument able to detect contaminants in very low concentrations.
- HPL/UV-VIS: liquid chromatography with UV/VIS detector, useful for most applications.
- HPLC/FL: liquid chromatography with fluorescence detector used for ochratoxin A and biogenic amines.
- HPLC/RI: liquid chromatography with index of refraction, ideal for determining triglycerides in oily matrixes and sugars in must and honey.
- CI: ionic chromatography with conductivity cell, used to analyze water.
Basic equipment:
- Electronic distiller in steam counter-current, used for volatile acidity
- Electronic distiller for alcohol content
- Kjieldal distiller for nitrogen
- Electronic density meter to read alcohol content and density
- Tartaric stability tester
- Conductometer
- Analytical scales
- Technical scales (2)
- Temperature bath
- Stoves (2)
- Muffle kilns (2)
Microbiology:
- Extractor hood
- Autoclave
- Microbiology
- Food homogenizer
- Filtration ramp
- Incubators (3)
SOFTWARE
The laboratory has two complementary software tools: the first, the so-called LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System), is the laboratory’s management program, a specialized tool controlling the entire life cycle of samples; the second is software collecting test data straight from the test instruments. Each test instrument is interfaced with software that handles output test data and, after appropriately validating it, sends it to the LIMS where it can be processed. The main advantages of this innovation are to considerably cut down on error owing to human intervention in manual data transfer and save time. This pair of tools has permitted creation of an “end to end” solution, i.e., covering the entire work cycle.
The management program can automatically generate a customized test certificate on paper or in digital form for better consultation and further test data processing.
If the client requests it, the results are sent via fax or e-mail. In addition, companies may request a personal password enabling them to access their own test results at any time and from any computer, consulting the website www.labchianticlassico.it. This service is voluntary and free of charge and was designed to respect the harshest international data confidentiality standards.
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