Sicilian immigrant Gary Pillitteri had always dreamed of owning
his own winery, and after winning a gold medal for Icewine in a Niagara wine competition,
he decided to take the plunge.
Today, Pillitteri Estates Winery has grown
from a small family operation into a mid-sized winery with more than 40 employees
and the capacity to produce 60,000 cases of wine a year.
And while it's
still a family-run business guided by Gary's original philosophy - to produce
the finest VQA wines possible from the highest quality Niagara Peninsula grapes
- with growth came the need for a more formalized approach to quality and safety.
"We're
no longer small scale enough that everybody knows what everybody else is doing,"
explains Gary's son-in-law Jamie Slingerland, Director of Viticulture. At the
same time, he says, the world as a whole is becoming more conscious of food safety
issues.
That's why the winery decided to become HACCP certified. The internationally
recognized food safety system identifies physical, chemical and biological hazards
in the production process and creates protocols to minimize or eliminate them.
HACCP
certification provides third-party confirmation that the winery's products meet
rigorous standards. It has become almost a necessity for selling to Europe and
Japan, says Slingerland, offering proof of authenticity as well as food safety.
"It's the way the world's going," he explains. "The question
is, do you want to be the last on the train, or do you want to be right up at
the front?"
Pillitteri positioned itself as an industry leader, choosing
Advantage HACCP Plus - the highest level of HACCP attainable. It's a system
designed by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs specifically
for small and mid-sized facilities.
Not only does it encompass all the
regular HACCP standards, it also includes additional requirements for traceability
and security. For Pillitteri Estates Winery, that meant installing better lighting,
security fencing, and a standardized locking system that controls employee access
to all areas of the plant.
The windows were replaced with laminated glass,
making them harder to break. If they are shattered, a special safety layer holds
the shards in place, so there's no risk of them contaminating the wine. Even the
airflow was controlled to prevent airborne particles from inadvertently being
sucked into the production areas.
While Slingerland describes the process
as demanding, the results were well worth it. "Having HACCP certification
gives us a very big edge," he says.
In addition to making the winery
more attractive to export markets - which account for 40 per cent of sales - the
traceability component of Advantage HACCP Plus means that if Pillitteri
needs to recall a product for any reason, it can do so quickly with minimum impact
on the consumer.
The new security measures have minimized theft, both internal
and external. That's an important bottom-line consideration when, for example,
a single bottle of 2004 Riesling Icewine retails for $50.
Perhaps most importantly,
Advantage HACCP Plus certification means peace of mind for the Pillitteri
family, knowing they have taken all reasonable precautions to make their product
safe. So while the winery has always insisted on strict sanitation standards,
now they can prove it.
"Until you see the piece of paper that says that
tank is clean, you take nothing for granted," Slingerland says. "It's
helped us be a little sharper in everything that we do."
Contact
Information:
Jamie Slingerland, Director of Viticulture, Pillitteri
Estates Winery
Tel: 905-651-2663
Email: winery@pillitteri.com
Website: www.pillitteri.com
"Advantage
HAACP Plus has helped us be a little sharper in everything that we do,"
says Jamie Slingerland, Director of Viticulture.
Figure 1: Marc Bradshaw,
Jamie Slingerland, Marc Cosentino, Bobbie-Jo McLellan
