A court this morning started hearing evidence in a case of alleged fraud instituted against the directors of Delicata wines who are accused of mislabelling a wine as Maltese doc when it was actually of Italian origin.  

The case was instituted after a complaint by competitors Camilleri Wines and Marsovin. The accused - Vincent George Delicata,  Mario Delicata and Michael Delicata are pleading not guilty.

Gilbert Camilleri , the former director and sole employee of the Viticulture Department told the court that after a report was sent to the permanent secretary, he began an investigation.

He bought six bottles of the wine in dispute from a supermarket and four were sent for analysis in Siena. He did not know the outcome since he had since left the department.

Mr Camilleri explained that his department every year knew the approximate amount of local grapes bought by the major wine producers and the amount of wine they were expected to produce. The figures for Delicata had always tallied and his department had therefore issued the usual bandirols.