Winemaker calls for introduction of DOC label

Marsovin managing director Anthony Cassar yesterday called on the government to step up its efforts to introduce DOC labelling on Maltese wines, as the lack of such a recognition was placing local quality wines at a disadvantage against their Italian, French and even Greek counterparts.

Mr Cassar was speaking during a press conference held at the company's cellars in Marsa. Despite the competition and market liberalisation as a result of Malta's EU membership, Marsovin's sales of its quality range had increased, he said. Nonetheless, he called on the government to introduce DOC labelling as soon as possible.

The DOC label, which stands in Italian for Denominazione di Origine Controllata, certifies the fact that a wine is genuine and of a certain quality. Quality wines are most definitively Malta's future, he emphasised. "Malta can never compete in the cheap wine sector in terms of price with countries which have the facilities to produce amounts unimaginable to local producers. However, when it comes to quality, Maltese wines compete well and that is where we have to place our focus, especially now that we have established crops and grape varieties," he added.

Turning to this year's harvest, which was the subject of the press conference, Mr Cassar said that 2005 will probably go down in recent history as an exceptional vintage year. The mild climatic conditions which characterised this summer and the relatively cool winter which preceded it had helped produce one of the best harvests seen in years, he said.

The first wines, especially the young varieties, white and rosé, will probably start being bottled in a month or so with the red varieties following later.

Just under 590 tonnes of grapes were harvested this year from Marsovin's own 200 tumoli of land and another 600 tumoli which are managed by the company.