The right weather conditions this year will mean some "great-quality wines for next year", according to Louie Camilleri, general manager of Camilleri Wines.

Mr Camilleri, who was speaking during a media visit to the vineyards of one of Camilleri Wines' vine growers at Miżieb, close to Manikata, explained that the overall lower temperatures, especially the mild summer months, produced the ideal climate in which the weather permitted a long maturing season, ideal for grape growing.

The Camilleri winery will be pressing 305,000 kilogrammes of grapes, harvested from their contract vineyards around Malta and Gozo. The first wines to go on the market this December will be some of the white varieties but this will only be done after the respective wine samples undergone the necessary tests for DOK approval in Italy at the Enoteca in Siena, Mr Camilleri said.

Chris Ciantar, permanent secretary at the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs, said the government supported the industry because it believes in Maltese wine as a truly genuine product that is in line with international standards and successfully competing with imported quality wines.

He noted that Camilleri Wines played a very active role in the industry's success mainly due to its policy of growing and producing wines that are 100 per cent Maltese, thus sustaining the market's growing confidence in Maltese wines.

Camilleri Wines' viticulturist Patrick Xerri explained that it was a good winter with more than 500mm of rain that came down in frequent moderate showers, giving enough time for the soil to absorb the water with very minimal surface run off and, hence, causing no soil erosion damage.

Temperatures in winter were rather cold and this helped to break the vine dormancy later on in early spring. Summer temperatures hovered around the 32˚C with no heat waves between June and August. This meant that heat stress was much less than in previous years, allowing for a uniform grape maturity. Lower temperatures meant longer grape maturity and the winery in fact harvested five to seven days later than the previous vintages.

Mr Xerri noted that, in Gozo, due to its geographic location further north and due to the number of valleys that allow cooler breezes from the sea inland, temperatures are an average one or two degrees lower than in Malta.

Therefore, grapes take longer to mature, so much so that Camilleri Wines always harvest its Gozo vineyards about seven to 10 days after the same grape variety is harvested in Malta.

Gozitan grapes are also different in character because the soil in Gozo has a higher clay content. A total of 24,000 kilogrammes of grapes have been harvested from Gozo's vineyards.

"Whereas every vendemmia is followed with great anticipation, this year we are especially looking forward to the Vermentino, Viognier and Tempranillo," Adrian Borg, winemaker at Camilleri Wines, said.

Artists Anna Galea, Tonio Mallia, Celia Borg Cardona, Kenneth Zammit Tabona and Andrew Borg were invited to paint the vineyards in Miżieb.

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