Wine Export Certification - Approved Laboratories

In the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal, the UK will become a third country in relation to the EU and goods exported from the UK will therefore be subject to the EU's legislative requirements of third country imports.

This means that each consignment of wine products exported to the EU from the UK will need to be accompanied by an export certificate VI-1 document which is made up of two parts: a certificate issued by a competent authority and an analysis report signed and stamped by a designated laboratory. These requirements are set out in Article 90 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and Section II of Regulation (EU) 2018/273.

Defra will act as the competent authority for issuing VI-1 documents. The ability to issue VI-1 documents is dependent on a laboratory/laboratories being designated to draw up the analysis reports in advance and those laboratories being recognised by the EU and listed by the European Commission.

Whether the wine to be exported originated within the UK or any other third country determines the process for issuing VI-1 documents. As such, a split process is in place whereby VI-1 certificates are certified by the competent authority, Defra.

For the purposes of issuing a VI-1 document, wine produced within the UK will be required to be tested by a designated laboratory. These varieties of wine will fully require a new analysis report to be created and attached to the VI-1 for export.

In this instance, wine exporters will be responsible for ensuring that an analysis report has been drawn up from an approved laboratory for each variety of wine that is produced. The analysis report can be reused each time a consignment of that particular variety of wine is exported to the EU by being included within each separate VI-1 document. However, it should be noted that as every consignment shipped needs an analysis report; if the analytic characteristics of any particular consignment are likely to be different from the original variety, then a fresh analysis report will need to be ordered.

The laboratory analysis report will need to provide specific information for wine products. The analysis report will need to be completed in the format as set out in Annex VII to Regulation (EU) No 273/2018, (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32018R0273&from=EN). This can be completed either by the laboratory or by the exporter, however if completed by the exporter the laboratory would still then be required to sign and stamp the analysis report.

The VI-1 documents will be shared directly with Defra for final authorisation following the signature of the laboratory being placed on them.

Defra are alerting the market of the opportunity to become an approved laboratory. In order to become approved, laboratories are required to have ISO/IEC 17025 UKAS accreditation.

If you would like to become an approved laboratory, please see the attached documents for full details.

Additional information:

Please note that Defra procurement uses an E-tendering system for Procurement activities. This is currently provided by Bravo Solutions. To access appropriate tendering and contractual documents, please access the E-Tendering portal at https://defra.bravosolution.co.uk", ensuring that your registration includes "Defra". If you have any problems with this system, please contact Bravo on their telephone helpline number 0800 368 4850 or by emailing them at help@bravosolution.co.uk. "