Wineries need support to export

Maltese wine could raise its international profile significantly if authorities granted wine-makers funds to help market their product, Marsovin’s director of marketing and export Jeremy Cassar told The Times Business.

“The Maltese industry needs to be supported if it is to survive. We need to follow the example set by the Hungarians, the Austrians and the Swiss, who market their wines heavily to raise their profile,” Mr Cassar explained. “Not only is international wine promotion very costly, it needs to be carried out selectively and carefully if our wines are to be noticed by the critics and the distributors who matter.”

Mr Cassar pointed out wine-makers played a significant role in the local scenario. Besides creating jobs, they helped sustain hundreds of Maltese farmers – the success of their wines went beyond four local wineries doing good business. He explained local wines were an integral part of Maltese culture and heritage, produced by an environment-friendly industry which helped keep the country green.

“As wine-makers, we are examining the possibility of organising a wine trail which should interest the Maltese in the winter and the tourists in the summer, especially if our wines become better known internationally. In the meantime, we will continue to market to open-minded Maltese consumers and to collectors of high end wines,” he added.

Local wines, he pointed out, add value to Malta’s tourism product in the same way they added to any other destination. The two industries are closely intertwined – 65 per cent of Marsovin’s sales are directed towards tourists. The recent downturn in tourism has subsequently had an effect on the industry, although improved showcasing of Maltese products at key venues like Malta International Airport had left its mark. Mr Cassar believed wineries should be more involved in Malta’s tourism factor, particularly as the wine industry is achieving more.

Despite the challenges posed by a hugely competitive domestic market flooded by imported wines, local wineries have continued to make considerable investment to upgrade their product and wine-making facilities, Mr Cassar said.

Marsovin, currently celebrating its 90th anniversary, has made great strides to reach a major objective by this milestone anniversary. This year, it has succeeded in producing the required quantity of grapes locally to be entirely self-sufficient.

But a “revolutionary” move has been made to benefit the entire local industry this year as wine-makers join forces to reach their wider collective objectives. A Malta Wine Makers Association has just been established by Marsovin, Meridiana, Camilleri Wines and Delicata, headed by former Federation of Industry president Martin Galea.

The association aims to forms a common front as Malta’s wine-makers work to promote their product together and to lobby for more support.

Mr Cassar explained Marsovin had succeeded in holding its own in challenging market conditions by raising its standards even higher. When Malta joined the European Union in 2004, the winery suffered initially in the volume base market.

But the business was sustained as the plantation of four estates, initiated in the 1990s, from which its high end wines are produced began to render the desired quantities.

“We produce eight premium wines, all of which are very successful and appreciated by the consumers who demand quality wines. Because of our investment in quality, because of our philosophy to work upwards rather than maintain the same standards, we have improved,” Mr Cassar explained. “The investment we made in our high end quality wines also reflected in the rest of our range. When it comes to maintaining the quality and maintaining our customers who are wine lovers, we have managed to success. That is what is important to maintain the structure that we have. It is not a small one. Today, we press 52 per cent of all Maltese grapes in Malta. Had we not had that philosophy, we would be in a different situation.”

Mr Cassar added that the implementation of the DOC and IGT protocols also helped Marsovin build a reputation for high end wines. He believed further benefits will be reaped in the future once the Maltese wine industry grows again with Maltese consumers.

“Some consumers are still a little apprehensive when buying Maltese wine but I think it is just a learning curve, they just need to get to know us again,” he emphasised.

The investment continues, nevertheless. Besides 199.7 tumoli of privately owned land in five estates, Marsovin reaps the fruit of 1,116 tumoli contracted across the islands. The entire wine-growing operation involves around 700 farmers.

Marsovin’s 90th year has been nothing short of eventful. It was the year the winery harvested over 1,300 tons of grapes by the end of the summer –just over half all grapes grown locally for Maltese wine production. Going ‘all-Maltese’ had been Marsovin’s long standing ambition although Mr Cassar pointed out it does not come without risks. Vine-growing can be a heartbreaking affair and the economic climate has not been the most encouraging. It is also hugely expensive. The human resource costs and investment – Marsovin installed a reverse osmosis plant at its Marnisi estate to significantly improve the quality of irrigation water – were steep, but Mr Cassar said Marsovin was satisfied with the yield from the estates.

Marsovin has released a superior wine made from a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot grapes harvested from low-yielding vines at Marsovin’s Marnisi estate in Marsaxlokk. The wine celebrates the year Anthony Cassar and his brother George ventured into the wine-making business.

Antonin Red 2007 won a gold medal at the Emozioni Dal Mondo event in Italy proving that the vintage had been to Marsovin’s decade what the 1999 was to the 1990s.

Mr Cassar said Marsovin was looking beyond the doom and gloom of this economically challenging year. The winery is working to produce another premium wine from indigenous grapes in the very near future; one barrel of the Gellewza was produced in 2007 and its future looks promising.

There will be more investment as Marsovin approaches its centenary and seeks to raise the quality of its wine even further both in terms of renovation and in innovation. In the next few years, some medium wines could sport a screw cap to minimise risk to the wines. Marsovin, however, will continue to invest in high quality cork for its higher end wines, a must if the wine is to be marketed more extensively overseas.

There is much work to be done in that respect as the company ventures into a new decade in business.

The winery has evolved several times since Anthony Cassar, and his brother George, two wine-merchants from Qormi, established A&G Cassar Ltd in 1919.

Mr Cassar’s earliest memory of the Marsa winery is accompanying his father Anthony at harvest-time at the age of 11. He recalls venturing into the winery, offering marketing advice to his father throughout his teens -- “not that he needed it”.

Mr Cassar spent most of his teenage years and early twenties at boarding school and university in the UK but it was not until he moved to France to further his studies in management and marketing that he became enamoured with “the culture of wine”.

He returned to Malta, joined the company’s ranks, and is now the only member of fourth generation of the Cassar family to be directly involved in the business. He leads a staff of 90, including a key wine-making team whose expertise has been fostered by the company – oenologist Philip Tonna has trained in Bordeaux and viticulturist Christian Cremona at San Michele all’Adige in Trentino. Three other team members are currently pursuing a diploma in wine studies.