Wine traceability, the State quality label for Emilia TGI wines (90% Lambrusco)

Tracing the origin of a wine is becoming more and more important, for various reasons. Ensuring compliance with production specifications, organoleptic characteristics and the healthiness of the products marketed, providing the consumers a “plus” of guarantees, “certifying” the value and the techniques of National enology, and above all, the territorial origin of the wine, is fundamental. There are several innovations that are going in this direction, including Artificial Intelligence, in addition to the various wine territories, more and more sensitive to the issue of transparency that rhymes with traceability. It is, therefore, no coincidence that the Consorzio Tutela Vini Emilia (Emilia wine protection consortium) has announced they will be introducing the anti-counterfeit State label that will be applied to the bottles on all Emilia TGI wines, starting from August 1, 2025, (the production area includes numerous municipalities in the provinces of Ferrara, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia and part of the province of Bologna, ed.), which will have this label, thereby offering greater transparency and safety to consumers. The label was printed by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato (state institute of printing and minting), according to a layout defined by the Italian Ministry, and is mandatory for DOCG wines, but optional for DOC and TGI wines. The label is printed on watermarked paper, which includes micro text, numbers and control codes, guaranteeing greater traceability and authenticity of the product to the consumer. The monitoring organization verifies the conformity between quantities produced and bottled, then issues the appropriate number of labels, monitoring their application on the bottles. Inside the label there will be a QR code that the consumer can scan and will allow access to the wine’s “digital passport”. This section will contain key information, including the serial and control code of the seal, the year of production, the batch and the certification. additionally, it will be possible to consult details about the producer, the Protection Consortium and the certification organization, and there will also be suggestions on food pairings and recipes that enhance Emilia TGI wines. This is an outstanding innovation for the Consorzio Tutela Vini Emilia, which produces 120 million bottles a year (Lambrusco covers 90%, producing more than 107 million bottles), 29 members, including various Cooperatives, totaling more than 5.000 winemakers. “Applying the label with the State seal on Emilia IGT wines is yet a further step forward in our commitment to quality and consumer protection”, Davide Frascari, president of the Consorzio Tutela Vini Emilia, explained, “this tool ensures the authenticity of the product, not only offering a guarantee against counterfeiting, but it also helps to strengthen trust in our territory and its excellence. When consumers scan the QR code on the labels, they will immediately have access to all the essential information about the wine, such as origin, organoleptic characteristics and production process. This initiative will allow us to make each bottle even more traceable, offering the people who buy our wines a complete and detailed overview of the quality and the history of the product they have chosen”. Francesco Soro, CEO of the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca di Stato, emphasized,“ the Zecca e Poligrafico dello Stato has always been a point of reference in the fight against counterfeiting and the protection of Italian excellence in the agri-food sector, and it will continue to do so, thanks to the technological developments that have enriched our products”. Francesco Liantonio, president of Valoritalia, said,“ the fact that such an important TGI in terms of volumes produced has chosen freely to adopt the State label is an aspect to be highlighted and a very important signal. It is a decision that started at the base to give greater added value to the product”. Since it is not an obligatory step, the choice that goes “in the direction of transparency to guarantee and protect consumers, is even more significant”, the Honorable Marco Cerreto of the Agriculture Commission, commented.
Oreste Gerini, General Director of the territorial offices and laboratories of the Ministry of Agriculture, added, “any system that guarantees control over production, and therefore on its quality, for producers and consumers, is a determining factor in guiding purchasing decisions. The decision that the TGI Emilia has made to adopt the State label includes all the guarantees that the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato and the controls of the ICQRF (quality protection and fraud repression) can provide, making each bottle unique and identifiable, is definitely going in this direction”.