Vintage Reports

Georges Meekers reviews the 2005 vintage and calls it a 'very promising' year; especially when taking into consideration the tender age of most of the vineyards rendering this year's fruit. Georges' 2005 darling red is Merlot.

THE 2005 VINTAGE REPORT

© Georges Meekers – July 2006

overview

Thanks to a revival in the vineyard, the 2005 vintage resulted in more 'new-wave', Malta-grown wines. The choice of Malta grown wines has never been greater whilst winemaking standards have never been higher. For those to whom Maltese wines are new, tasting the wines of the 2005 should make the choice easier.

Malta’s climate is normally characterized by very hot and dry summers. But the steady rise in heat during the 2005 summer months has given way to a much slower and extended ripening period for the indigenous and international grape varieties.

In fact, the particular cold and relatively wet winter was followed by a cooler than normal summer with lower night and day temperatures throughout June, July and August.
This resulted in a delay in bud burst and a further delayed grape maturation. With less irrigation needed, the longer maturation period has given the fruit a steadier rate of ripening. Another positive factor over the normally dry vintages is the fair amount of rainfall that occurred. Similar amounts of precipitation as in 2004 made it a relatively less dry season which has resulted in much healthier vines bearing healthy fruit.
This has lead to grapes with excellent aromas and varietal characteristics. High natural sugar levels were also achieved for the 2005 international grape varieties. The 2005 crops were generally harvested one week later than in 2004.

The conditions were ideal for the production of structured white and red wines of character with good potential for aging in bottle up to 3 - 8 years.

major wineries record

Marsovin publicly announced a good quality harvest from its private estates and 286 independent grape growers which was lower in tonnage than in the 2004 harvest.

Newcomer Camilleri Wines issued a statement saying that they harvested higher quantities of a wider range of international varieties.

As newly planted vineyards came online this year, Delicata also picked more fruit. Their ‘Vines for Wines’ project was launched in 1996 and each year since then Delicata has planted more and more international grape varieties in vineyards which totalled 328 vineyards covering 140 hectares planted with 752,000 vines in 2005. The vineyards planted in 2004/2005 have produced no fruit yet. According to a spokesman, Delicata planted 40 hectares in 2005, and has secured a similar amount of plantings for 2006.

the wines

The wines of the 2005 vintage show greater varietal characteristics and are more aromatic. The Chardonnays tend to be more buttery than citrus-like on the nose and rounder on the palate with good weight and length. Unlike previously, the Sauvignon Blanc is expressive in the Kiwi-style and also rather fat.
Good colour extraction has been achieved for fuller bodied red wines made from Bordeaux varieties. Merlot seems to be the tastiest grape variety of the 2005 vintage. Syrah examples are deep, purplish in colour and rather meaty in a similar style to the better Rhone examples.
Whilst most red wines will benefit from 3 to 8 years of bottle ageing, the lighter, crisp whites made from the indigenous Girgentina and the light-bodied reds from the native Gellewza as well as the aromatic and well-structured, fleshy rosés from Grenache Noir were excellent.

Overall the 2004 vintage was spectacular in quantity terms whilst the 2005 grape harvest has resulted in some of the best quality Malta grown wines yet.#

| Vintage 2006 | Vintage 2007 |

| Vintage 2008 | Vintage 2009 | Vintage 2010 |