Records must be kept to help ensure the traceability of grapes and wine goods throughout the supply chain to substantiate future claims about a wine’s vintage, variety and region. The Wine Australia Act 2013 (the Act) requires these records to be kept and contains penalties for people who do not keep proper records.
Under the Act, a person who is a manufacturer, supplier or receiver of wine goods is required to keep written records.
When supplying wine goods to another party, the following must be provided:
- the type of wine goods to which the record relates to
- the date of supply
- the identity of whom you’ve supplied the wine goods to (the individual or organisation’s name and address)
- the quantity of the wine goods that you’re supplying, and
- the vintage, variety and geographical indication (GI) of the wine goods.
When receiving wine goods, the following must be recorded:
- the type of wine goods to which the record relates to
- the date of supply
- the identity of whom you’ve received wine goods from (the individual or organisation’s name and address)
- the quantity of the wine goods you’ve received, and
- the vintage, variety and GI of the wine goods.
During the production process, you must record:
- transfers
- winemaking processes (such as amelioration, racking, filtration or blending)
- information about the vessels (e.g. tanks or barrels) that the wine was moved between (all vessels must be individually identifiable)
- any changes to the volume or quantity that occurred, including both gains and losses, and
- any changes to the composition of the product (vintage, variety and/or geographical indication) that resulted through processing activities (such as blending or barrel topping).
Please note: records must be made within three days of the transaction and kept for seven years.
While how to keep these records is not specified, our Wine Goods Supply Statement contains the mandatory information when supplying a wine good.
For those of you that don’t have a software program, please feel free to contact our Audit Team – we’re here to help by providing more information and templates for record keeping if you need.