Leafing through international wine trade magazines and listening to comments from winemakers and wine consumers, I’m convinced that the search for new excitement that indigenous grape varieties can offer will go on. If anything, the world wine market shows an ever growing interest in wine produced from “autochthonous” varieties.
Looking north, we witness how the new emerging southern Italian producers represent the driving force behind a significant slice of Italy’s wine exports. Their success in competing with New World wines is partially based on a good quality price ratio and the novelty of native varieties. For many, Italy’s winning card is its diversity from region to region and its plethora of indigenous grape varieties unique to each region.
From a wider perspective, even Greece, Spain, Portugal and la belle France are making and promoting quality wines made from hundreds of indigenous varieties; it’s not just Italy.
On the home front, Malta, too, can boast of indigenous grape varieties of commercial significance, namely the white Girgentina and the black Gellewza.
Apart from patriotic reasons and an enigmatic “food-friendly” quality, Malta grown wines made from Girgentina and Gellewza seem to have a dual appeal of being easy to drink as well as offering good value-for-money to the wine consumer.
And, precisely this value proposition, I believe, may be the key to unlocking success on the international front for Maltese wine producers spurring what I have come to call the G-force.
It is not unimaginable that someday Girgentina and Gellewza will hold international currency like, for example, the red Italianates Negroamaro, Nero D’Avola, Primitivo, Aglianico and white varieties Falanghina, Greco Bianco and Fiano.
All these Italian indigenous varieties are asserting their place in the market whereas scarcely any of these grapes did 20 years ago. Surely Malta’s vinous future holds more in store in terms of well tended old indigenous vines and more concentrated wines made from their grapes?
But, more work needs to be done. First of all, neither Girgentina nor Gellewza have enjoyed the extensive research programmes that have been applied to some varieties from other countries.
In surrounding European countries, however, there are interesting examples of competitiveness initiatives by the government directed toward the improvement of the business strategies of their national wine and vine sector in this respect.
In Italy, for example, help and support from the authorities has been available for a while to wine producers who advocate indigenous Italian varieties. There’s the case in point of Sandro Bosciani of Masi Agricola (Wine Enthusiast's European Winery of the Year) who received government funding to plant and study 48 little-known grape varieties and clones in an experimental vineyard. Italian winemakers, for instance, can thank a team of funded Tuscan agronomists for rediscovering more than 200 forgotten varieties in Tuscany alone such as Pugnitello, a previously undocumented grape variety found growing on a farm in Chianti.
So, the global world of grapes and wine is a rather open-minded one when it comes to the choice of grape varieties. The current vogue for things native is a vote of confidence for something new on the market. However, market forces are set to ensure that a varietal Darwinism will prevail. The best-tasting and best-selling innovators will flourish but consumer preferences will dictate which wines endure.
The indigenous Maltese grape varieties are there to be rediscovered, producing a number of wines that offer an appealing balance between innovation and authenticity. It will be interesting to see how the styles of these wines will be developed even further to please the palate of today’s discerning wine enthusiasts.
In any case, well-made wines from unique grapes grown in one of the tiniest winemaking regions in the world, Malta, seems a terribly exciting value proposition to any true wine lover.
This information is brought to you by Emmanuel Delicata Winemaker