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In the Spotlight
Wine is made in vineyards. But how?

It is generally agreed that only careful work in the vineyard will ensure the quality and competitiveness of the final product: wine. Despite the fine natural conditions and good grape varieties for making wine that Portugal enjoys, the qualitative leap in our wines will only be decisive and widespread when the technology used in vineyards is completely revolutionised.

The Adega Coop Borba (ACB) is well aware of this and has invested heavily in this area. It has implemented an ambitious support and monitoring service for all its members' plots under vines. This process starts with the choice of the most useful grapes for the market and ends with the strict control of the quality of the final product. Completely contradicting the notion that the production level demanded in an Adega Cooperativa is much lower than you would find in a small producer/bottler, in the ACB the production of each wine-grower is assessed to a far higher standard that is usual in most Portuguese adegas. For instance:

• SIG – VitisÁrea: A geographic information system (GIS) is used to find certain information about each plot: soil type, distance between vines and rows of vines, year planted, rootstock, grape varieties, crown growth, method of irrigation, fertilisation, etc.

• SIG – VitisCampo: Wine-growers are encouraged to protect the plants under an integrated system, using environmentally-friendly plant health products. To improve growing techniques, work mostly involves pruning and opening up the plants, support them on trellising, adapting the vineyards to mechanisation.

• Pressure-chamber: Irrigation is the key to getting good quality grapes. It is controlled with the utmost rigour. The ACB therefore has pressure-chamber equipment to measure the vines’ foliar hydric potential, so as to determine exactly when the plant needs water, and how much should be given.

• FTIR and NIR technology: Strict control of grape maturation is essential for the production of a quality wine. Samples of grapes are therefore taken from time to time to examine the degree of maturation and decide on the best date for harvesting each grape variety on the different plots of land under vines. Multiparametric analysis equipment is used for this (FTIR and NIR technology).

Making wine in the vineyard is clearly becoming more and more necessary, but more than good intentions and marketing tools are needed. Investment must be a priority, along with ongoing training of wine-growers and the constant supervision of wine technicians. This is the only way to ensure that when we say wine is made in the vineyard will give the desired results.


Spotlight on a job / Person
Engineer Helena Ferreira - Quality and Food Safety Manager

In charge of quality control and food safety. She had to prepare and implement the Adega Coop Borba’s food safety and quality management system (FSQMS). This was achieved in 2007 with the granting of quality certification (ISO 9001:2000) and food safety (ISO 22000:2005). She was responsible for revising and monitoring the FSQMS procedures with a view to customer satisfaction. She oversaw the HACCP system and coordinated incident management. She examined customer complaints and non-conformances noted by the various sectors, describing the respective remedial and preventive actions.

As the person in charge of ACB’s quality control, she supervised the raw material (grapes) from maturation to harvest, for all the wines throughout the production process, and the subsidiary materials, ensuring the traceability of ACB products from vine to bottle.