A 20 foot container was loaded full of Delicata's two D.O.K. Gozo wines Victoria Heights last week - destination Shanghai, China. The shipment was split between the medal winning Victoria Heights Chardonnay and the Victoria Heights Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Franc. Both wines will be served at the Café Jubilee outlet that will be set up in the Malta Pavilion at Expo 2010. This year the exposition is being hosted in Shanghai and will last for six months beginning on May 1st. The Café Jubilee establishment will be offering a selection of Maltese and Gozitan beverages and foods to its visitors as well as these two D.O.K. quality wines by the glass or bottle.
CHANNEL ISLAND WINE
The Billionaire twin Barclay brothers, who own the Daily Telegraph and the Ritz hotel in London, are planting their first vineyard on the island of Sark in the Channel Islands. They own the neighbouring island of Brecqhou and have land on the island of Sark which has a population of around 600 and offers residents tax-free status. The brothers have recruited a leading French winemaker from Pomerol to plant 5 hectares of vines on several plots around the island which will be growing Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Pinot Gris. Sark is on the same latitude as the Loire valley in Northern France and the intention is to make top quality still and sparkling white wines to sell to tourists. Planting should begin in April 2010, with the first vintage planned for 2013.
GRAPE EATING BABOONS DEVASTATE VINE
Local media in South Africa has reported that a bunch of Baboons are terrorising farmers in the country's Western Cape wine region. Some farmers are stating that up to 40% of their crop has been destroyed in February alone. It seems that these ‘Primates with a Palate' have taken a particular liking to the noble white grape Chardonnay and are scoffing tonnes of the grapes that are just ready for harvesting.
Some farms in the Franschhoek Valley had been emptied by rampaging Chachma baboons, which sneak into secured plots and help themselves to top grade grapes, The Times newspaper said. 'They can easily wipe out up to two tonnes of grapes a week when you are not watching, and that makes about 1,500 to 2,000 bottles of wine,' said the farm manager of La Petite Ferme. He then went on to say that 'in some parts of France, they would let you yield only a small amount... the baboons are doing it naturally for us.'
HEALTHY ‘WHITE' WINE.
A molecular biologist, from the University of Connecticut in Farmington America, has said: "The flesh of the grape can do the same job as the skin" following the release of a recent study that says white wine is just as good for you as red.
It has already been well established that red wine is healthy, as resveratrol, a grape-skin ingredient, has often been cited as the cause of the "French paradox" - the fact that French people have low rates of heart disease despite eating a lot of fat.
Rats given a tipple of Italian white wine with their meals suffered less heart attack damage than animals allowed only water or raw grain alcohol. The benefits were similar to those seen in animals fed red wine, or its "wonder" grape-skin ingredient, resveratrol. However, white wine, made from the pulp of grapes but not the skin, contains no resveratrol. Lab tests suggested that white wine protected the mitochondria in heart cells, the rod-shaped cell structures that act as energy-generating "powerplants".