Delicata Lifelong Learning

Delicata Lifelong Learning

Winemaker and head of viticulture, Matthew Delicata accompanied the winery’s viticulturist Jonathan Falzon and vineyard hand John Grima on their second visit to the ‘Italian School of Vine Pruning’ founded by long-time viticulturists Marco Simonit and Pierpaolo Sirch. This time they participated in master classes about green pruning whereas in December the lessons delivered by…

Support for Our Heritage Vines

Support for Our Heritage Vines

Recently, Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes was quoted saying that the unusual prolonged dry weather this year has not only caused a smaller than average grape crop but unfortunately even ruined several grape vine plants. His announcement of future government assistance in the replanting of vines and in particular the indigenous Girgentina and Ġellewża varieties seems…

Grasping Girgentina

Grasping Girgentina

Just say ‘Girgentina’. The soft sibilance, the internal alliteration, the jovial completion, whether you give it the sharp English pronunciation or slowly ease off the word in Maltese, it’s a sound suggestive of heritage and, of course, wine. Nobody knows for sure where the name of Malta’s very own green-skinned grape variety comes from. It…

Robots and Precision Viticulture

Robots and Precision Viticulture

Soon enough vignerons will be assisted by intelligent machines that autonomously roam their vineyards in similar fashion to the Mars Rover or Star Wars’ R2D2. Robots will measure the condition of the vines and grapes and tell the grower which vine needs special TLC. Today the use of robotics in viticulture may still be at…

Climate Change and Maltese Wine

Climate Change and Maltese Wine

New research from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Harvard University has found that climate change has caused earlier grape harvests in France and other European countries over the last 30 years. Grapes in France are now being picked two weeks sooner on average than they were in the past. Each degree Celsius of…