A Chapter On Maltese Vermentino

Ten years ago, we had a hard time even spelling Vermentino. Yet today it’s one of the most promising white wine grapes in Malta.

I can hardly believe that I didn’t even give Vermentino as much as a mention or a footnote in my guide to the wines of Malta at the time. I wasn’t being remiss, though. Plantings were simply few and far between back then and no serious local wines were made from this Vitis vinifera.

Since then the variety has caught the eye of grape growers and winemakers turning their new, fashionable crop into an array of mainly dry varietals and blends,including a late-harvest style, that warrants writing a whole new chapter on Maltese Vermentino.

The recent notably virtuous efforts by the Delicata winery haven’t gone unrecorded. Just last week, Delicata’s 2015 Landini Vermentino, IGT Maltese Islands, in the Classic Collection of wines won a bronze medal of merit at the 40th Challenge International du Vin, France, following the commendation and critical acclaim at last year’s Decanter World Wine Awards, UK for the 2014 vintage.

The appreciation and growing thirst for well-made Vermentino, locally as well as internationally, goes to show how much things can change in a decade.

Vermentino has gained in popularity among many wine lovers the world over. It’s easy to see why: Vermentino is easy to grow, especially in coastal areas, and retains its natural acidity well in warm climates so winemakers can craft fresh and racy dry white wines that entice with subtle floral scents and fruity flavours. There’s almost always that unrestrained, irresistible hint of sweetness even when the wines are devoid of any residual sugar.

Vermentino is a wine that can easily be overlooked, though, in the profusion of other, similar-sounding names like Verdejo, Verdicchio, Verduzzo and Vernaccia. It doesn’t help that the grape also goes by many synonyms and is variously called Pigato, Favorita, Rolle and Malvoisie de Corse.

This is one of those itinerants, an amiable white wine cultivar that ventured around its native Mediterranean – and then beyond. Vermentino has always been associated with Sardinia and is also traditionally grown in Liguria, Tuscany, Piedmont, Corsica, in parts of southern France, and recently other relatively warmer regions in and outside Europe.

In Malta, it’s now seen on a dozen or so wine labels, either as a mono-varietal or together with other locally hand-picked grape varieties such as Viognier, Chardonnay and Girgentina. The Delicata winery adds it judiciously to Zibibbo, resulting in the unique Malta-grown Medina Vermentino Zibibbo cuvée. Depending on the vintage, it’s used in the winery’s white Pjazza Reġina as well.

Generally speaking, Maltese Vermentino vinified on its own is bright and zippy, fuller-flavoured and attractively more mouth-filling than more northern examples, and with a distinct Mediterranean vinous character reminiscent of that Riviera charm of aniseed and sea breeze minerality.

Delicata’s award-winning Classic Collection Landini Vermentino is a commendable and very affordable example of what can be achieved by combining precision viticulture, modern white winemaking technology and skill.

It leans to the side of the dry and steely style of young and unoaked Vermentino. It’s lively and spares the drinker the befuddling waxy, oily mouthfeel and bitter almond finish characteristic of some lesser Italian and French bottles. Instead, its fine spring-fresh nose of jasmine blossoms and crushed seashells opens up to delicate flavours of fenugreek, liquorice, preserved lemon and plenty of lime.

In the story of a wine, the final chapter is always waiting to be written. In the meanwhile I can see refreshing Maltese Vermentino rule your shopping list this summer.

This article by Georges Meekers appeared first in the Times of Malta, 15th April 2016