A Secret Hidden in the Mediterranean
Maltese Wines Are a Long Way From the Wine Shop.
Even the most adventuresome wine drinkers have probably never tasted a Maltese wine. How could they? The Maltese themselves drink almost all that their handful of wineries produce. A mere trickle of the country’s modest output makes it to England and Italy, and none is shipped to the United States.
Malta, the island nation just south of Sicily, and its sister island, Gozo, have less than 2,000 acres cultivated with vines. Peru and Japan make more wine than Malta.
But once on the island, getting to know the wines is as easy as eating lunch. A couple of pages of them are right up front on every wine list, and they are the most reasonably priced choices.
Up-to-date international varietals, especially syrah, merlot and chardonnay, dominate the vineyards that upholster Malta’s rolling terrain. Foreign investors, including the venerable house of Antinori in Tuscany, have been showing up lately and creating handsome new wineries. Experienced winemakers from France and elsewhere are on board. And the native grapes, gellewza and girgentina, once dismissed as bush league, are valued, having been snatched from the brink in the last 10 years.
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