Circular 9/2014. Rules concerning
the stay in wineries of non-protected
wines and by-products,and their
release from the winery

Order APA/3465/2004, of 20 October 2004, whereby the Regulations of the Denominación de Origen Calificada Rioja and its Control Board, sets out in Article 17.2 of Annex I, that downgraded wines must be kept in identified and duly labelled containers, under the control of the Control Board, and that their transfer to another registered winery is forbidden. Also, in point III. One of Annex 2 of the aforementioned Order, which sets out the Standards for classifying wines entitled to the Denominación de Origen Calificada Rioja, it is determined that ‘wines that have not been submitted for classification or that have not achieved it, must be removed from the winery before 31 May of the year following their production,” all in order to comply with the separation principle required in article 23.1.d) of Act 24/2003, of 10 July 2003, on the Vine and Wine, and in article 24 of the aforementioned Regulation of the DOCa Rioja.

Also, Article 31 of the Regulations of the DOCa Rioja sets out in section 2 that “Any expedition of must, wine or any other grape product or winemaking by-product must be authorised by the Control Board in the manner determined by it, prior to its execution. If the expedition is carried out by a registered winery bound for a non-registered winery, that winery must also request such authorisation from the Control Board.”

In view of this, the Control Board is required to determine how wineries are authorised to remove wines and by-products from their premises. The plenary decided at its session of 14 November 2014, to update Official Circular No. 5/2002 on the control of removal of wines that have not been certified and by-products to adapt to current regulations.

• Non-protected wines, as of the downgrading date, must be separated and located in the “Other Products” record, and they will be under the control of the Control Board Empowered Overseers Service.
• Whatever the destination, the expedition will be carried out with notification and prior authorisation from the Control Board.
• Registered wineries holding non-protected wine whose destination is to be consumed by members, workers or other retail outlets, must previously notify the Control Board of the monthly amount they will allocate for this purpose.
• The Control Board will be informed monthly of expeditions made in section c) by means of the submission of the document set out for this purpose by the Control Board.
• Both the wines that have not been subjected to classification or that have not passed it, as well as the wines not protected because of excess yields or grape-to-wine ratios and the processing lees must leave the winery before 31 May of the year following vinification, just as indicated in section b), after compliance with the provisions of section a).
• It will not be necessary to request prior authorisation for the shipment of up to one volume of lees equivalent to 3% of vinified volume. This however does not exempt the winery from fulfilling control requirements regarding expeditions, the obligation to enter the information in the Other Products record and its monthly reporting in the mandatory movements statement.

Logroño, 14 November 2014.

THE PRESIDENT,

Luis Alberto Lecea Blanco