Wine industry warns of production drop unless concessions are accepted

The local wine industry has expressed concern that production may drop by over 50 per cent unless the EU accepts the requests made by the government in negotiations over the agriculture sector.

Wine Association chairman George Delicata, who is also managing director of Emanuel Delicata Winemaker Ltd, said that both the government and EU officials in Brussels had recognised the importance of the local wine industry being granted transition periods and safeguards.

However, lately there had been active lobbying in Brussels against the concessions being sought: "The lobbying in Brussels is being carried out by a few people in the Maltese wine-making business, who represent less than five per cent of the sector, who are acting against the interest of the rest of the winemaking community and its many employees, the farmers who support it, and the elements of Maltese society and the economy that depend on it."

Mr Delicata said that if these lobbyists succeeded in their work, the majority of winemakers in Malta would not be allowed to use indigenous grapes and would have to classify wine made from imported grapes as table wine.

"And we would not be able to plant out any more vineyards. If, on the other hand, concessions are obtained, this would safeguard and improve the future of the Maltese winemaking industry whose wines have been chosen by the government as a strategic product with regard to the future of Maltese agriculture."

Mr Delicata explained that the local industry had asked for three concessions:

¤ Permission to increase the amount of land under cultivation of grapes from 400 hectares to 1,000 hectares. If this concession were not accepted, the planting of new vineyards would cease upon accession;

¤ Permission to continue adding sugar to two unique Maltese grape varieties - gellewza and girgentina - until 2008.

Geographically, Malta is classified as an area where local wine producers cannot add sugar to wine. In other parts of the world, it is acceptable to add sugar in what is technically known as chaptalisation, which is the addition of sugar at the fermenting stage in order to increase alcohol content. Mr Delicata explained that this process had nothing to do with the sweetening of the wine.

"The problem with Maltese grapes is that they only reach nine per cent alcohol. For many years we have been using the chaptalisation method to increase the alcohol level to 12 per cent. We want this transition period in order to have enough time to carry out scientific research to find out why our grapes do not reach the required alcohol level."

Mr Delicata said it was acknowledged that grapes grown in cooler regions produced lower sugar levels than grapes grown in hotter regions.

"Germany is allowed to produce wine with a nine per cent alcohol level because of this: without the addition of sugar the wines would only reach about five per cent alcohol. France is also allowed to add sugar to wine grown from grapes in its cooler regions, to reach the international alcohol requirements of 12 per cent. Malta is a region where grapes should produce enough sugar to reach the 12 per cent alcohol requirement, but while this is the case with grapes grown from imported root-stock, it is not the case with Maltese indigenous grape varieties."

He explained that under current EU regulations, wines made from Malta-grown grapes could not have sugar added to them because it was taken for granted that they already contained enough.

Mr Delicata said the Maltese negotiators had backed the wine association and argued for an exception for the indigenous Maltese varieties, as it had been scientifically proven that they did not produce sufficient sugar despite the hot climate.

"The EU has agreed in principle but there are sectors in Malta who do not use these grapes varieties and who are fighting against this concession."

The third issue concerns labelling. Wine-makers have asked to be allowed to continue with their practice of naming the grape on the label of a bottle even if the wine is made from an imported grape.

In other words, they want to be allowed to continue giving the Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon name, for example, to wine made from imported grapes. The EU regulations say that to call a bottle of wine Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon, the grapes would have to originate from that country. Otherwise, irrespective of the quality of the grapes, the wine will be classified as table wine.

The local wine association argues that it wants this concession for a specific number of years until they were able to grow enough grapes in Malta to become self-sufficient. Malta is the only European country where there is a shortage of vineyards. In Europe, there is a surplus of vines.

"We are only importing grapes because there are not enough vineyards to grow our own."

Mr Delicata explained that the declassification of wines produced from imported grapes would mean a decrease of 35 per cent in the production of Maltese wine.

"Basically, in table wine we are not allowed to name the grape variety or vintage even if the wine is made by 100 per cent Chardonnay of the year 1992. We would like to continue using labelling until we become self-sufficient."

In Malta, wine is made from imported whole grapes, imported crushed grapes (called 'must'), grapes grown in Malta from imported root-stock, or grapes grown in Malta from indigenous vine varieties. The indigenous vine varieties (gellewza and girgentina) are unique in the world. This has been established through DNA testing carried out in Australia.

Mr Delicata said there were not enough indigenous grapes to meet the demand by wine-makers.

"There are only 4,000 tumoli of vineyards in Malta and Gozo, and just 3,000 tumoli of these are planted out with the indigenous varieties.

"We firmly believe that Malta should be self-sufficient in grape-growing. This is desirable for a number of reasons, not least among them the large amount of money used to buy quality imported grapes. We spend around Lm2 million annually on imported grapes which could instead be spent on Maltese and Gozitan growers, keeping the money in the local economy."