quality control is a hands-on process of monitoring and controlling all parameters that verify a wine’s palatability, stability, compliance with regulations, typicality, and freedom from faults and contaminants. Most large wineries maintain laboratories capable of conducting all but the most difficult of the required analyses, while smaller wine enterprises send samples to an independent commercial laboratory. For complete quality control, a chemical analytical laboratory, a microbiological laboratory, and a statistically controlled tasting panel are required. See also quality assurance and sampling.
