International Accreditation for Delicata
Delicata’s list of exporting destinations is likely to expand in the near future now that it has been awarded international accreditation for its winery and wine making procedures. This follows an independent technical audit of the Delicata Winery which has recently been carried out by English Master of Wine David Bird, to accredit the wine producer as an approved supplier to certain leading wine retailers in the United Kingdom.
The accreditation was instigated by a leading UK importer following a very favourable tasting of the Delicata wines at this year’s London International Wine Fair which Delicata exhibited in last May.
This accreditation will no doubt assist in opening up new accounts in the United Kingdom for Delicata in 2008 as well as existing orders for the 2007 vintage wines in new countries such as The United States of America and Poland. This follows a number of new market penetrations during 2007 such as Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, Holland and the Czech Republic which are mainly selling Delicata’s premium wines, Gran Cavalier, Grand vin de Hauteville, Victoria Heights and Medina Vineyards. Also during 2007 Delicata has sent its first wines to the Far East as Korea have taken their first order of Grand Vin de Hauteville, Medina Vineyards and The Maltese Falcon. In addition to this Delicata now has an established foothold in Sweden with its Gellewza Frizzante sold under an own-label ‘Bodvar of Sweden’. Up until recently this wine was exclusively for the on trade but it is now being listed by the state owned retail monopoly, Systembologet.
The accreditation was finally given after a full two day technical audit was carried out by David Bird MW with members of the Delicata Quality Assurance team which included Michael Delicata, Aaron Sammut and Dr. Edric Bonello, which inspected every aspect of the wine making procedure from start to finish.
David Bird MW summary of the visit quoted directly from the Technical Inspection report reads “QUALITY STANDARDS IN DELICATA ARE VERY HIGH”. “THERE ARE DOCUMENTED PROCEDURES AND MONITORING SYSTEMS IN ALL AREAS”.
Just some of the areas audited included Grape supplies; Vineyard control; Grape reception; De-stemming and Pressing; Fermentation; Fining and Filtration procedures; Refrigeration; Bottling hall and bottling machines and procedures; Warehousing; Quality Control procedures, records and assurances including HACCP; Hygiene and Housekeeping; and Personnel.
David Bird is both a Chartered Chemist and a Master of Wine who’s company originally offered a quality assurance service to industry in the form of consultancy for the instillation of ISO 9000, specialising in the drinks industry. More recently this has developed into the quality auditing of wineries all over the world ( see www.dbqa.com ) on behalf of retailers in Britain who need to show due diligence in accord with the Food Safety Act of 1991. In 2000, he published his first book, which has become required reading for the Diploma examination of the WSET, entitled Understanding Wine Technology -The Science of Wine Explained. The book has subsequently gone through three print runs and a new edition was printed in 2005 which expands on all the previous subjects and has brought in the latest technological techniques.
David was accompanied by his wife Alice during their stay in Malta and after returning to the UK posted pictures of their visit to Malta on their website and confirmed in writing that Emmanuel Delicata Winemaker is now an accredited winery for the supply of wines to the United Kingdom.
