How to Submit a Sample – A Refresher
Harvest is here (gulp!)
Have you forgotten how to submit samples but feel like it’s too late to ask? Not to worry—we’ve got you covered! Following these simple steps will help ensure your wine, beer, cider, or fermentation samples arrive in the best condition for accurate, timely results.
Step 1: Email us your order
First things first, send us an email at order@imbibe-solutions.com with:
- Your sample ID(s)
- The test(s) you’d like for each sample
Super simple and it really helps us out!
Step 2: Prepare your samples
A little prep goes a long way!
- Feel free to use your own sample containers (that water bottle you keep meaning to put in the recycling? Send it our way!) We’re also more than happy to provide sample tubes if you’d like something more official.
- Fill your sample containers as much as possible—limited (or no) headspace helps preserve sample quality
- If you’re mailing samples, we recommend including an ice pack to help prevent overheating during transit. Excess heat can cause all kinds of pesky problems such as salts and acids falling out of solution or allowing juice samples to begin fermenting before they reach us.
- For grape samples: we want to make sure we’re testing a representative sample of your vineyard—it is best to send a sample of 100 berries picked from different clusters and from different locations around your vineyard for an accurate representation
- Watch this short video on collecting a representative grape sample:
Step 3: Ship or drop off your samples
The finish line is almost in sight! All you have to do now is send us your samples in the mail or hand deliver them to the lab directly.
If hand delivering, you can come right on in and drop off your samples with one of us! If we’re not here, you can leave samples in the blue cooler outside our door—reminder that we will be open 7 days a week from mid-August to mid-October (9-6 Mon-Sat and 12-4 Sun)
All samples can be shipped or hand-delivered to:
Imbibe Solutions
580 Radford Lane, Suite 101
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Let’s face it, shipping can be a bit of a hassle. To make things easier, we’ve found it best to:
- Label the package “Samples for Analysis Only – Not for Human Consumption” and “Fragile.”
- Use UPS or FedEx, since they deliver directly to our lab (instead of a mailbox that gets suuuuper toasty this time of year)
- Friendly reminder: If your package indicates it contains alcohol, be sure to ship using your business account. Otherwise, the carrier may return the package. 😭
Need a further refresher or more details? Visit the How to Submit Samples page, or give us a call—we’re always happy to help!
We’re looking forward to working with you this harvest and wish you a smooth and successful vintage!