New Red Ġellewża Hits Home

Medina Gellewza

Delicata’s popular Medina range now embraces also a new red wine made from the rare Ġellewża grape variety which is unique to the Maltese Islands.

The name Ġellewża, a red-skinned grape variety which is naturally packed with all the necessary ripe fruit flavours to produce great pink wines, is usually associated by wine enthusiasts with Delicata’s semi-sparkling Ġellewża Frizzante and other quality rosés produced by Malta’s most awarded winery.

Now, after much hard work in the Delicata domaine of vineyards combined with modern winemaking techniques and skill, award-winning winemaker Matthew Delicata, has produced a long-awaited red wine made entirely from Malta’s very own Ġellewża grape.

The new wine will be released next week as an addition to the company’s Medina range of quality wines of mono-varietals and blends. This 11th Medina, the Ġellewża red, will go alongside five other red wines in the range which are Medina Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Sangiovese and the original blend of Syrah, Carignan and Grenache.

The 2014 vintage Medina Ġellewża is made exclusively from hand-picked grapes grown on traditional, old bush vines of indeterminate age – probably 35 to 50 years – which are largely dry-farmed in family-run vineyards which were personally earmarked by the winemaker specifically for the production of this new release.

With Ġellewża, Delicata has a story to tell and the winery’s long commitment to the variety is now paying off.

The garnet coloured wine is indeed a terrific and unparalleled expression of Malta’s indigenous red grape variety. Its fresh nose reminds of candy and the scent of violets. It’s not a featherweight wine; instead it shows nice plum and cherry fruit flavours on a gentle yet broad palate with supple tannins and, above all, an intriguing hallmark of liquorish.

For anyone visiting this year’s Delicata Classic Wine Festival between the 6 and 9th August at the Upper Barrakka Gardens in Valletta (from 7.00 pm) the Medina Ġellewża red will be available for people to try for the first time on Stand 2.