We choose it carefully to create refined and inviting pairings, we anticipate its aromas and flavor a moment before uncorking the bottle or while its nuances, now dark and intense, now clear, amber or straw yellow, fill the glass: wine, you know, is at the center of a sensory experience that opens up worlds and opens up emotions. A path that starts from afar, invests the entire production process and of which, often, the final consumer does not have full perception.
Producing wine means maintaining high quality standards and responding to the demands of a constantly changing and highly competitive market. This is the approach that Tenute del Cerro has always implemented. In fact, the Unipol Group winery has chosen to integrate the ISO 9001 certification, already recognized to the company by an international third-party body, with a new set of quality awards that further raise the standard of the estates.
The project involved Fattoria del Cerro and the Cerraie logistics hub, as well as Poderina, the Montecorona estate, Monterufoli and Còlpetrone.
Let's find out together what the new quality certifications represent: Michela Mazzetti, laboratory manager at Tenute del Cerro, accompanies us on this journey.
Certifications: focus on work, environment, logistics
The new certification system, as Michela Mazzetti explains to us, adds a further element to the perimeter defined by the ISO 9001 standard, which has already been setting the pace for about ten years in terms of product quality and optimization of organizational processes.
During 2022, the companies of the Group reached a new milestone by obtaining the recognition of a new standard based on three management systems that converge on work, environment and logistics. Let's take a closer look at what it is.
Labour regulation
All the properties of Tenute del Cerro have always been attentive to the quality and sustainability of the work: the ethical-social management system of the Group has achieved certification according to the international standard SA8000. This means that the certifying body has positively assessed the way in which the estates manage their operations in compliance with the rights, labor regulations and international conventions applicable to the sector.
Environmental sustainability
Among the priorities that all the companies in the Group have set for themselves is careful environmental management: on this front, all the production cycles have been designed so as to reduce the impact on the ecosystem as much as possible. This operating mode allows structures to optimize water consumption and produce energy from renewable sources. At the heart of the environmental protocols of Tenute del Cerro there are also the monitoring of the quality of wastewater, the virtuous management of the waste cycle and the containment of CO2 equivalent emissions deriving from company activities. In light of this structure strongly based on environmental sustainability, the estates have been deemed compliant with the ISO 14001 standard, which recognizes the commitment to environmental performance and sustainability.
The value of logistics
One of the most recent flagships of the cellars of the Tenute del Cerro group is represented by the Le Cerraie hub. The main bottling and product packaging activities are concentrated in the new centre, the crossroads for all logistics operations. The production center, inaugurated in 2022 and designed in a green key, has earned the Group the recognition of the IFS standard on food safety. This protocol aims to support producers in optimizing costs and resources and in guaranteeing transparency along the entire food supply chain, a crucial step on which Tenute del Cerro has recently intervened with the introduction of a technology able to monitor the temperature of the wine during transport.
The value of quality, a look to the future
The development of the three management fronts dedicated to work, environmental sustainability and logistics has not only been subject to verification by SGS, an independent international body, but will also be at the center of a periodic monitoring process: this means that the operations of Tenute del Cerro, and its compliance with certified safety standards, will be subject to checks aimed at certifying the constancy of the quality standards achieved. A choice, that of the Management of Tenute del Cerro, which moves in the wake of a consideration: the three structures are closely connected to each other and are an integral part of a larger project dedicated to sustainability.
Along the certification process, the Group's commitment does not stop at the activities aimed at obtaining the quality standards, but also continues in the long term. The Estates will not only be subject to checks aimed at maintaining the certifications obtained, but in parallel they will work to achieve new goals. This is what is already happening for Equalitas. This protocol, which is dedicated to the sustainability of wine production, will involve the various offices both in terms of cellars and vineyards. Work on this standard, in particular, started in 2022, when Fattoria del Cerro became part of the certification project of the Consorzio del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
In light of the virtuous paths that the Group has already completed and in view of those that will affect the Estates in the immediate future, the goal is to further raise the quality level not only of the final product, but also of the processes necessary to create it. This approach, underlines the laboratory manager of Tenute del Cerro, represents a guarantee of quality, transparency and sustainability for the consumer and is an element destined to further increase the brand's reputation.
On the other hand, the Unipol group winery aims to become a reference point in the sector, as well as a driving force for the entire winegrowing panorama in terms of sustainability, a true keyword that incorporates the three fronts around which Tenute del Cerro is already building its own future.
