A typical bunch of Maltese Vermentino grapes.One of the last international white grapes to be pressed at the Delicata Winery last week was the Vermentino, a grape that is used by Delicata in its Medina DOK Malta range, blended with Zibibbo, and sometimes in Pjazza Regina, depending on that vintage’s cépage. Forty-eight thousand kilos of the grape variety were pressed.
Vermentino has only been around in Malta for a few years, but it is quickly gaining respect and popularity. It grows well in our hot Mediterranean climate and is naturally a late ripening, amber or green-coloured variety, which has quite large fleshy berries that form in loose bunches.
The resulting wine is a particular favourite of mine and is yet to be discovered by many white wine lovers; it is aromatic, full-flavoured and slightly spicy. When it is young, it is fresh, fruity and quite floral but after a couple of years in bottle it develops into a much fatter, fuller-flavoured wine with bags of character and finesse, not dissimilar to an aged dry Riesling. I really believe this to be a wine that is just ‘waiting in the wings’ so to speak, that will reveal itself in years to come as one of our island’s viticulural jewels.
It is grown in various regions of Italy, mainly in Liguria under the synonym Pigato, in Piedmont as Favorita and in Tuscany.
It is also planted in the southern French regions of Provence, Languedoc-Roussillon and on the island of Corsica. But it is most famously known as one of the best white wines to emerge from Sardinia, especially the DOCG Vermentino di Gallura and Gallura Superiore which is produced in the north of the island.
Maltese Vermentino also produces wines that go well with food, especially shellfish platters, crisp summer salads and oriental food, in particular Thai cuisine and sushi
In 2011, at a wine conference in Hong Kong, British wine writer Steven Spurrier (portrayed in the Hollywood film Sideways) was asked to nominate the grape variety of the future and he chose the Italian light-skinned Vermentino.
Leading wine expert Jancis Robinson MW said of the variety: “I can quite see the appeal of young Vermentinos, virtually all of which exhibit the racy, citrus, often mineral and sometimes marine character of refreshing dry wine, usually unoaked and moderate in alcohol. This is a quintessentially Mediterranean grape variety, retaining its acidity well even in relatively warm regions”.
Another tribute for the variety comes from Stuart Walton, author of The World’s Encyclopaedia of Wine, following a visit and tasting at the Delicata winery in recent years. He described it as “a strikingly aromatic Medina Vermentino-Zibibbo blend full of jasmine and apple, with nipping, delicate acidity”.
Maltese Vermentino also produces wines that go well with food, especially shellfish platters, crisp summer salads and oriental food, in particular Thai cuisine and sushi.