🗺️ Maltese wine

Maltese wine is wine from the islands of Malta and Gozo, in the middle of the Mediterranean. Most of it falls under one protected name, the PGI "Maltese Islands" (Indikazzjoni Ġeografika Tipika, IĠT). The whole archipelago is included except Malta's harbour area, so a Gozo grower and a Maltese one can use the same label.

The climate is typically Mediterranean. Rain adds up to about 577 mm a year, almost 51 per cent of it between October and December and only 2 per cent in June to August. Mean temperatures run from 12.4 °C in winter to 26.3 °C in summer. The soil is calcareous and alkaline, rarely deeper than a metre. In the south of Malta it is red terra rossa 30 to 40 cm thick, in the middle a pale xerorendzina the locals call bajjad, and in the north and most of Gozo clay.

Gozo runs about a week behind Malta at harvest. Its clay keeps vine roots cooler, sea spray brings more salt, and the valleys of the hilly north coast open to the sea, each with a microclimate of its own. The official description says the wines hold good acidity even from very ripe grapes.

The local grapes are white Girgentina and red Ġellewża. Chardonnay, Merlot, Syrah and Grenache grow beside them, and many more varieties are allowed. A grape can be named on the label only if it makes up at least 85 per cent. Yield may reach 125 hl/ha for white and rosé and 120 for red. That is well above Luxembourg's Moselle or Belgium's Hageland (67). Volatile acidity is capped at 1.2 g/L in reds and 1.0 in whites and rosés.

Look for the pale-green strip on the bottle neck, with a control number beginning MT. Properly harvested reds give sweet tannins and around 13 per cent alcohol or more, and whites are well structured.