1.What Vin-Q issues
Most marks on a wine bottle certify a rule set: an origin, a list of permitted practices, an audited farming standard. Vin-Q works at lot level. It authorises one identified bottle lot after that lot's own measurements have cleared the gates applicable to its route, and publishes the record those measurements sit in.
It is
A method authorisation, licensed per bottle lot and tied to a released Vintage Record.
It is not
An accredited certification, a rating, or a substitute for an appellation or organic certificate.
Why it is licensed rather than certified. An EU certification mark may only be owned by a proprietor that supplies none of the goods it certifies. Vin-Q operates the constructor for every marked wine and may hold wine of its own, so it registers the emblem as an ordinary trademark and licenses it per released lot instead. A bottle statement has to be accurate about its own basis, and a cellar deciding whether to sign should know the legal form of what it is signing. (Art. 83(2), Regulation (EU) 2017/1001)
What Vin-Q issues
A method authorisation. A lot may carry the Vin-Q Method statement only after its applicable gates, measurements and records are complete and a technical reviewer signs the release decision.
- A released, version-locked Vintage Record for the identified bottle lot
- The protocol modules the record actually supports, by code
- The Method and constructor version used for every decision
- A QR destination resolving to that bottle lot, not to a marketing page
External standards sit alongside
A requested certification enters the constructor as an eligibility constraint before a blend is proposed, and carries its own legal field on the label.
- Certification rules shape the candidate parcels at Gate 1 (VQM-CON-007)
- Valid certificates are held as externally certified evidence
- D.O. Cava and Corpinnat are alternative sparkling routes; a wine takes one
- A valid certificate is what turns a farming practice into a certified claim
2.Three engagement scopes
The scopes differ in how much of the gate sequence runs. Each reaches a different set of protocol segments, so the seal on the finished bottle shows the scope chosen. The scopes are additive: a cellar that starts with a release record keeps that record when it later brings the vineyard in.
Release record
Gates G8
Publish a readable, lot-specific record for a wine you already make, without changing how you make it.
You keep
Every production decision. No target window is imposed, no route is committed, and no operation is scheduled by the constructor.
You supply
- Bottle-lot identity, volume and bottling date
- Your own operation and addition records for that lot
- Final analysis from an identified laboratory, with the method stated
- Proposed label text and the external certificates the wine already holds
Vin-Q performs
- Reviews final composition, stability, oxygen state and the fault screen against declared windows
- Records the release decision and the permitted statements
- Publishes the Vintage Record and resolves its QR to that lot
The bottle may then state
- Dated maturation, stability and release gates.
Outside this scope
Vineyard and fermentation claims, because no gate observed them. The seal carries one segment, and the record states why the others are absent.
Suits: A cellar that wants a customer-readable record and a working QR on the back label before it changes anything in the vineyard or the tank.
Cellar route
Gates G4–G8
Run reception to release under measured gates, with the route committed before fermentation starts.
You keep
The fruit relationships, the house style and the final technical call. Your winemaker signs every decision; the gate records what was measured when it was made.
You supply
- Lot identity, mass and sanitary state at reception
- Density and temperature trajectories through fermentation
- The complete additions ledger, including an empty one where nothing was added
- Analyses at the declared sampling points
Vin-Q performs
- Commits the component to a route at Gate 5 and fixes its measurement schedule
- Sets target windows and hold rules through fermentation
- Resolves the endpoint, assemblage and bottling decision at Gate 7
- Runs the release gate and publishes the Vintage Record
The bottle may then state
- The route statement for the committed route
- Indigenous fermentation recorded from fruit lot to completion.
- Intervention limits and complete additions record published for this lot.
- Dated maturation, stability and release gates.
Outside this scope
The two vineyard protocols. Precision Viticulture and Regenerative Vineyard need dated parcel data from before the harvest, which this option does not collect.
Suits: A cellar that buys fruit, or farms without recording it, and wants the cellar half of the record to be evidence rather than recollection.
Vineyard to bottle
Gates G0–G8
The whole Method: the wine is specified before the fruit is selected, and every gate from brief to release is recorded.
You keep
Ownership of the fruit, the wine and the brand. The constructor proposes and gates; the farmer and the winemaker decide and sign.
You supply
- Opted-in parcels with identity, area, plantation and farming records
- The season’s vineyard measurements, or a sensor feed the platform can read
- Everything the cellar route requires from reception onward
Vin-Q performs
- Turns the brief into a constructible target with a priority order at Gate 0
- Ranks single-parcel and multi-parcel candidates from opted-in inventory at Gate 1
- Sets the parcel-zone operations calendar and sampling plan at Gate 2
- Segments the harvest by zone, maturity and sanitary state at Gate 3
- Runs the full cellar sequence through to release
The bottle may then state
- Parcel-zone decisions guided by recorded water, weather, disease-risk and maturity data.
- Diagnosed soil, cover, input and habitat operations recorded with their observed response.
- The route statement, plus the composition protocols the record supports
- Dated maturation, stability and release gates.
Outside this scope
Only the protocols the chosen route forbids. A lot cannot hold both Ancestral and Traditional Method, because it cannot have both one fermentation and two.
Suits: A cellar that controls its fruit and wants the full constellation, or one preparing a wine for a commissioning buyer who will ask for it.
3.The seven protocol modules
A protocol is a set of decisions plus the evidence that has to exist for them. A lot earns its segment by producing that evidence. Which modules are available to a lot depends on its route.
| Code | Controls | Gates | The bottle statement it unlocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| PVPrecision viticulture | Parcel and vintage | G2–G3VQ-PV-1.0 | Parcel-zone decisions guided by recorded water, weather, disease-risk and maturity data. |
| RVRegenerative vineyard | Soil, vine and habitat | G2–G3VQ-RV-1.0 | Diagnosed soil, cover, input and habitat operations recorded with their observed response. |
| ANAncestral | One fermentation | G5–G7VQ-ANC-1.0 | One primary fermentation completed in bottle. |
| NFNative fermentation | Indigenous microbiota | G5–G6VQ-NF-1.0 | Indigenous fermentation recorded from fruit lot to completion. |
| NCNo correction | Composition without adjustment | G4–G8VQ-NC-1.0 | Intervention limits and complete additions record published for this lot. |
| TMTraditional sparkling | Second fermentation in bottle | G7VQ-TM-1.0 | Second fermentation in bottle, dated lees maturation and release. |
| MRMaturation and release | Finished lot | G8VQ-MR-1.0 | Dated maturation, stability and release gates. |
Each module is versioned. A changed requirement issues a new version rather than editing the old one, so a record released under VQM 1.0 still reads against the rules that were in force when the wine was made. Full protocol library
4.Routes and appellations
Gate 7 resolves a lot to one of three endpoints, and the endpoints are mutually exclusive. The choice is made during construction, because each route reaches a different set of modules and a different relationship with the appellations.
Ancestral
AN · NF · NC · MROne primary fermentation, started in the vessel and finished in the bottle. Effervescence comes from the sugar still present at bottling, not from a second fermentation.
No appellation in Catalonia covers this route, because DOP Cava and DO Penedès sparkling both require a second fermentation. An Ancestral lot is therefore released outside those appellations.
For a cellar Released outside the sparkling appellations by construction, which leaves the record as the buyer’s only evidence and makes the gate sequence the wine’s whole quality argument.
Traditional method
TM · PV · RV · NC · MRA base wine is fermented dry, then bottled with tirage for a second fermentation. Effervescence and autolytic texture come from that second fermentation and the lees period that follows it.
This is the route DOP Cava and DO Penedès sparkling recognise. Their own rules on parcel, variety and minimum lees period apply on top of the Method and keep their own field on the label.
For a cellar The one sparkling route D.O. Cava and Corpinnat recognise. The Method sits under their rules rather than beside them, and the lees period is dated in both systems.
Still
PV · RV · NF · NC · MRThe fermentation is taken to its endpoint in the vessel and the wine is finished without effervescence. Structure comes from extraction and maturation rather than from pressure.
DOQ Priorat, DO Penedès and DO Montsant all cover still wine. Their parcel and variety rules apply as an eligibility constraint before a blend is proposed.
For a cellar Compatible with the still appellations. Their parcel and variety rules enter at Gate 1 as an eligibility constraint, before a blend is proposed rather than after it is tasted.
5.Participation modes
A separate choice from the scope above. This one decides whether your lots stay entirely your own or become selectable by a commissioning buyer. Any scope can run under either mode.
Advisory participation
You make and sell your own wine. Vin-Q supplies the targets, the gates and the record.
- The wine stays yours from fruit to invoice
- The mark is licensed lot by lot, and only after a release decision
- Your lots stay out of the inventory a commissioning buyer selects from
- Withdrawing ends future authorisations; records already published stay published
Co-creation inventory participation
Your lots become selectable at Gate 1, so a commissioning buyer can build a wine on them.
- Parcels and lots are registered with identity, volume and eligibility
- The constructor may rank them against an incoming brief
- Selection produces an offer you then price and accept, commission by commission
- Certification scope is checked before a blend is proposed, so an organic or D.O. constraint never surfaces late
6.Release conditions
All seven conditions hold for every authorised lot. A technical reviewer signs the release decision.
- 01An approved wine brief and a recorded constructor version
- 02Grapes selected from current opted-in inventory, with identity and eligibility records
- 03Every vineyard, harvest, reception, fermentation, assemblage, maturation and release gate applicable to the route completed
- 04Critical measurements inside the declared lot-specific windows, or a recorded redirection
- 05Complete operation, addition, analysis and departure records
- 06Final sensory, composition, stability and label approval
- 07A released, version-locked Vintage Record
7.Limits of the offer
The offer covers the production record and the release decision. These six areas sit outside it.
Licensed, under trademark law
The emblem is an ordinary trademark, licensed for lots that received a release decision and issued by the organisation that also operates the constructor. It carries no accreditation, so every bottle statement stands on its own published evidence.
It does not grant or replace an appellation
D.O., D.O. Cava, Corpinnat and organic status are decided by their own bodies under their own rules. A valid certificate enters the record as externally certified evidence and keeps its own legal field on the label.
It does not take your food-law responsibility
The operator marketing the wine remains responsible for the presence and accuracy of food information under Art. 8 of Reg. (EU) 1169/2011, and every operator for the activities it controls under Art. 17 of Reg. (EC) 178/2002.
A missing measurement holds the gate
A required value that is absent keeps its critical gate on hold, and a lot that cannot evidence an applicable gate does not receive the authorisation. There is no partial pass and no provisional mark.
It does not score the wine
No rating is issued and no medal is awarded. The record states what was measured, what was decided and what was departed from. A reader draws their own conclusion.
Authorisation can be withdrawn
A published record can be corrected, and a correction suspends the authorisation until the record is re-released. A material breach of the licence rules withdraws it.
8.Fees
Fees are set per engagement rather than published, because the work varies with how much evidence a cellar already holds. These are the drivers; the figure comes back in a written schedule once we have seen your records.
- Which option runs, and therefore how many gates are reviewed
- How many lots, and the volume of each
- How much of the evidence already exists in a form the platform can import
- Whether the parcels are already registered, for the vineyard protocols
- The route, since Traditional Method adds a tirage and a dated lees period to the release gate
Laboratory analyses, external certification fees, label and packaging design, shipping, duties and extended storage are quoted separately and are not included in the platform fee.