VITEC, the perfect ally for Catalan wine

The Wine Technology Center offers technical assistance to the wine sector from the vineyard, through the cellar and to the point of sale

In 2009 he was born in Falset the Wine Technology Center (VITEC) as a non-profit foundation to do oriented research and transfer to its customers the new knowledge and innovations in the wine field. In practice, this translates into the offer of technological services of advice and technical assistance, analytical services and experimental cellar, among others.

It is noteworthy that as a non-profit foundation, the center allocates all its income to improve its research activity and to promote innovation to improve production and viticultural quality. It is therefore the perfect ally for the sector, both for winegrowers and oenologists, as well as for wineries and the auxiliary industry.

To do this task, VITEC has a complete equipment, with viticulture, oenological, microbiological and bottling laboratories, as well as an experimental cellar equipped to make microvinifications from 50 to 1,000 liters. It also has a tasting room equipped for 15 tasters, with a separate annex for the preparation of samples. This sensory analysis equipment is made available to wineries or other entities, such as designations of origin, for the evaluation and qualification of wines. It is in this equipment that this year the team of the Guide to Wines of Catalonia together with members of the VITEC tasting panel they have blindly evaluated the wines of the agricultural schools, the experimental ones and those without DO for the 2017 edition of the guide.

But complete and modern technical equipment is of little use without the right people to use it. And VITEC is also well served by this. The staff is made up of doctors and higher graduates with exclusive dedication to R&D and technical advice. In this way, extensive practical experience is added to a good training, provided by the collaboration and the work done for more than 400 wine companies that have trusted in the center's services.

Regarding the sensory evaluation of wines, VITEC has a panel of 12 trained tasters, able to objectively describe all types of wines, still, sparkling and generous.

As always, funding is the key. As Sergi de Lamo, director of the center explains, "since we started the activity in August 2009, VITEC is financed entirely through its activity, without any structural financial contribution from any administration". And it is that he himself comments that precisely from 2009 the crisis has seriously affected the institutions. This is why, although INCAVI and IRTA are patrons of the foundation, the Generalitat does not make any contribution.

Regarding the financing of works commissioned by clients, VITEC supports winegrowers, oenologists or wineries who request advice from the centre: they are provided with help and support in obtaining funding through research project applications that help them co-finance and reduce the costs of the assignment. This means that a large part of the research contracts they develop end up being co-financed by some Catalan, national or European R+D+I public call.

From theory to practice

But none of this would be useful to its customers if the work developed at VITEC was not of practical and rapid application. In the world of research, knowledge is generated with varying degrees of application. What is known as basic research is the generation of knowledge without any specific application to date. On the other hand, applied research is developed at VITEC, which is the generation of knowledge seeking to solve a current problem or offer a short-term process or product improvement. This often involves going in search of this knowledge resulting from basic research that is generated at universities and research centers, and interpreting this new knowledge to adapt it to the resolution of the specific needs of winegrowers, oenologists or wineries. Through the own team of technicians and researchers, this knowledge is transferred quickly and immediately.