The 2012 vintage has been a bumper year for Delicata as the pressing came to an end at their state-of-the-art winery in Marsa, hitting the one million kilo threshold. The last two grapes to be pressed were the indigenous red and white varieties – Ġellewża and Girgentina.

If you lined up all of the vines needed to produce one million kilos of grapes it would stretch from Valletta to Athens (some 850 kilometres) or go around the shoreline of Malta (137 kilometres) over six times.

The vendemmia is made up of 20 grape varieties that have been grown and hand-picked in selected Delicata family-run vineyards from approximately 350 farmers, spread out across both Malta and Gozo.

Overall, this year’s climatic conditions helped the grapes achieve a more regular but progressive ripening process than in 2011 and the substantial winter rains were also a bonus.

Disease infestation was also lower this year, possibly a result of the customised winter pruning exercise carried out by Delicata’s team of French pruning experts in February. These pruning techniques also helped increase the grapes’ natural sugars.

The white varieties pressed include Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Moscato, Girgentina, Vermentino and Chardonnay, while the red varieties include Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah (Shiraz), Grenache, Carignan, Cabernet Franc, Ġellewża and Sangiovese. Some of the Syrah, Grenache and Ġellewża will be vinified as rosé wines.

The wine brands that these D.O.K. Malta, D.O.K. Gozo and I.G.T. Maltese Islands grapes will go into are the Gran Cavalier, Grand vin de Hauteville, Victoria Heights, Medina, Ġellewża, Maltese Falcon and Pjazza Reġina. Many of the wines will be fermented in the newly-installed stainless steel tanks which are temperature controlled.

The previously installed state-of-the-art 300 hectolitre Ganimede wine fermenters that allow the scientific management of technical gases will be used for many of the red wines.

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