Tribute to Ta' Kurun, the old wine bar

The annual Qormi Wine Festival, scheduled for next weekend, has kicked off with an exhibition of wine making and wine bars Città Pinto has long been linked to.

The town has a history of wine making and wine bars and these traditions have been traced in an exhibition mounted in a 500-year-old building, which used to be a windmill.

Displayed at the exhibition, open for a week, are old tools, used by wine producers before the 1950s, bottles of wine and other traditional machinery, dating back to the pre-war period.

One of its focal points is the reconstruction of the old bar, Ta' Kurun, complete with life-size models, reviving the scene of traditional wine bars common in Qormi before World War II and until the 1970s. Some 75 years ago, there were about 80 wine bars in the area. The exhibition was opened yesterday by Qormi mayor Jesmond Aquilina and Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino, who expressed his support for the initiative, which offered good insight into the wine-making traditions of the past.

The Qormi Wine Festival, to be held on Friday and Saturday, had become an annual cultural event, attracting a good number of families and tourists, the organisers said.

www.festiesterniqormi.org